James Potter's Fifth Year
by urban-chic64
Summary: BETTER SUMMARY IN AUTHOR PROFILE! It's James's fifth year, basically. More adventure, less action with the Marauders... a prank that goes too far, and a girl who wouldn't date him if it was a choice between him & the giant squid! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: I started writing this story about two years ago, but I didn't finish it. Maybe some of you might remember it. This is the repost and continuation.

--

Prologue: Lily 

_"Lily, get the camera!" James called excitedly. "He's taking his first steps, hurry!_

_Lily rushed into the living room from the kitchen, a large black camera in hand. The sight before her made her squeal with excitement: her baby was taking his first steps. With a quick flash of purple smoke, Lily captured the moment just before his chubby legs gave a great wobble and he toppled over._

_She was so proud. Her child was the spitting image of his father when he'd been a child – messy black hair and the cutest little face. It was unquestionable that he was their son, for he also had his mother's piercing green eyes. _

_Lily ran over and scooped him up in her arms. "You did it, Harry," she cooed lovingly. She gave him an Eskimo kiss while James chuckled and took another picture. ._ .

"Ah!" yelped Lily Evans as she bolted straight up from her bed. She looked down. _Oh Merlin_, she thought, relieved. She was still in her bed at Hogwarts, it was still the middle of the night and she was still fifteen years old. She rubbed her head. She'd been having those nightmares for a while now. . . horrible dreams of her, with James. . . though she'd never seen the little boy there before. She knew he was her son – and James's too – she'd called him Harry. . .

Unknowingly, Lily started to sob quietly. She hated James; she hated him, so why was she having these dreams of him and her becoming a family? She never really remembered the dreams afterward, but she remembered the gist. She would never in her life admit that she'd fancied James in her first year, only to find that he was an arrogant git. And however much she denied it, she still fancied him. After all, he was really handsome. . .

"Lily?" whispered her friend Clarissa. She pulled back the hangings on her bed. "Lily, what's wrong?" Clarissa looked very tired, as though she'd just woken up.

"I'm sorry, Claire," said Lily, frantically wiping away at her tears.

"Bad dream again, huh?" said Clarissa sympathetically.

"Yeah. . ." said Lily, but even as she said it, the details of the dream were slipping away until all she could remember was that she'd been there, and James had been there, and some boy they must've been babysitting. . . What was his name again?

"You know what," offered Clarissa. "I think you could do with a bath."

"Oh, gee, thanks," replied Lily sarcastically, sniffing her underarms a bit to see if they smelled bad.

"No, that's not what I mean," laughed Clarissa. "But a nice long bath might help you clear your head and help you stop thinking about James."

"Good idea," mumbled Lily, rolling out of bed.

Grabbing her bathrobe and slipping on her slippers, she walked out of the dormitory, through the Fat Lady Portrait, and downstairs to the Prefects bathroom. After saying the weekly password ("Rosemary") she gladly went up to the huge bathtub and turned on a few taps. When it started to fill up she slipped in the tub, the scent of vanilla and lilies filling the air. She tinkered with the taps a bit more until the water turned a thick lilac colour, then settled in, feeling very peaceful.

All her previous thoughts about James, how much he annoyed her, yet how much she liked him, seemed to wash away.

She stayed there, dreamy like, until she heard the door creak open. As though it had been a gunshot, she jerked alert, looked up and gasped in alarm.

"Lily!"

"James!" she screeched in outrage, painfully aware that she was completely naked. She sunk down until only her head was visible above the water, as James quickly turned around, highly embarrassed. He was holding a towel and robe as though he'd been planning to take a bath. "This is the PREFECT bathroom! Get out!"

James didn't need telling twice. He rushed out of there as quickly as he could.

Trying to think rationally, but shaking very badly, Lily tried to count to thirty in her head before she thought it would be safe to leave the bathroom. While trying to keep count, she couldn't help thinking, "Who takes a bath at one o'clock in the morning!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Back to School 

**---**

"Remember to floss every night, my little Angel. Be on your best behaviour, James, you have to uphold the Potter honour, and remember to _change your underwear everyday_ – "

"Okay, okay," James Potter said, his face turning scarlet, as he pushed his mother aside. "I'm a big boy now," he added sarcastically.

"They really should've made you a Prefect," Mrs. Potter seethed. "You always have top marks, and I'm sure you follow all the rules…"

James hid a snigger. It was true that he was exceptionally bright, but with the help of his three closest friends, he'd broken almost every rule imaginable.

She gave him a warm hug. "Well, write to your father and me in every spare moment, you hear me? Now, run along."

James climbed onto the Hogwarts Express, the school train, for yet another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His trunks were already boarded in the compartments on the side of the train, and he now went to find his friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

He found two of the three in the very last compartment.

"Where's Remus?" he asked, as the train lurched forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his mum trying to catch his attention by waving. Turning his back on the window, he ignored her.

"He's up front with the trolley lady and the conductor," Sirius explained. "He's not feeling… up to scratch," he added significantly.

James understood; Remus was a werewolf, and the tonight must be a full moon.

Not that it mattered to them – when they'd found out about him in their second year, they'd resolved to become Animagi to be with him during his transformations. No one except them and the teachers knew about Remus. They had to do it quietly, because what they were doing was illegal, but James was learning to become a stag, Sirius – a dog, and Peter – a rat. They reckoned they'd be able to do it flawlessly by Halloween.

"Where's Regulus?" James asked Sirius.

Sirius pulled a sour face. "My dear old brother is up in a compartment with his dear old Slytherin friends. Stupid git thinks he's cool now that he's in his third year… Unfortunately my parents agree – they didn't buy _me_ a new broomstick when I reached my 'two-year-anniversary-from-when-I-first-attended-school'."

There was an awkward silence in which the three of them avoided looking at each other, when Sirius decided to change the subject.

"Did you guys see Snivellus's mother?" he asked, Snivellus meaning Severus Snape.

"No, why?" asked Peter.

Sirius laughed harshly. "She's even more greasy-haired than her son."

James snorted. "Now there I was thinking that it wasn't possible to be even _near_ as greasy as Snivellus," he said. The three friends laughed.

"Hey, did either of you two see Evans?" James asked interestedly and quite suddenly.

Sirius whistled. "That's one fine-looking lady," he agreed. "A Prefect too, I heard – brains _and_ beauty – two things you haven't got, Peter," he joked good-naturedly.

Peter blushed, but grinned weakly. It was true he wasn't nearly as smart as his friends, and he looked a bit on the hamsterish side; he was usually the butt of their harmless jokes.

"Hey –" said James, "lay off the squirt. Besides," he added devilishly, "we all know that I'm the best-looking guy in the year. If Evans dates anyone this term, it's gonna be me."

This wasn't entirely true; Sirius had his share of admirers.

"You wish," said Peter.

James's grin faded. "What was that, Peter?"

"You heard the boy," Sirius said jovially. "Let him speak."

James narrowed his eyes. _I could have any girl I wanted_, he thought silently. _They're only jealous. I'll show them. By the end of June I'll be Lily Evans' new boyfriend_.

The witch that pushed the trolley came round about noon. James was ravenous, and ordered two of everything.

"Bit much, isn't it?" said Sirius lightly.

"I haven't eaten since breakfast," he countered.

No one would ever guess the amount of food James consumed in a day by his appearance; he was a little on the short side, but athletic-looking. His shining brown eyes, uncontrollably messy black hair that always stuck up in the back, and healthy pink patches on his cheeks always gave him the appearance of someone who'd just gone out for a brisk walk.

They reached Hogsmeade Station around 5:30, when the sky was an orange-ish colour tinged with pink, as the sun descended behind the Hogwarts castle.

As usual, the Black, Winged Horse-Things (as James so amusedly called them) came to pick them up in the carriages that took them across the grounds. He didn't mention them this year as he had his other four years at Hogwarts, because only him and Remus could see them, and Remus wasn't with them. The other times he'd brought them up, Sirius had asked about his sanity.

In fact, Sirius gave James a sort of sidelong glance as though waiting for him to ask him and Peter if they saw anything then, as they entered the carriages.

"It's great to be back, isn't it?" Peter said dreamily, as they finally stepped into the Entrance Hall of the castle five minutes later.

"Yeah," agreed James, as the three of them strolled into the Great Hall along with all the second years and above (the first years crossed the lake with Hagrid the Gamekeeper to the castle to prepare for the Sorting Ceremony).

"I wish the feast would start up soon," James said wistfully.

"James, James, James," Sirius said in bewilderment. "My dear boy – you had a whole feast to yourself on the train. Soon your stomach will be so full that the food you eat will have to go to your already bloated head."

James punched Sirius playfully on the arm (though rather hard) as Peter chuckled mindlessly.

They all talked for a while (mostly about how bad it was that Remus had to miss the start-of-term feast) when the first years traipsed in behind Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress and Transfiguration teacher ("About time," grunted James).

Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, got up to say a few words. "Welcome to another fun-filled year at Hogwarts," he said happily. "I am pleased to see all your young lively faces today, and would like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Girl – Erwin Applegate and Celestina Warbeck."

He paused, as there was a small round of applause – it was mostly for Celestina, as she was very popular and well known for her amazing singing voice.

"I am very sorry to announce that our caretaker, Mr. Apollyon Pringle, was very severely injured this past summer – it seems that he is highly allergic to Dune Beetle Soup and – well, now, never mind."

A noise suspiciously like a cheer rose up from James's end of the table. Dumbledore continued as if he hadn't heard this, but James swore he saw the corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitch.

"Therefore, we have a new caretaker, Mr. Argus Filch, and I'm sure you will make all the time he spends at Hogwarts unforgettable, however long that may be."

James covered a laugh with a cough. He was going to make – what was it? – _Filch's_ life unforgettable all right; in other words, horrible. Just one look at Filch was enough to scar anyone for life. His thin, scraggly, matted hair was plastered to his head around his pale, skull-like face. His yellow glinting eyes perfectly matched his misshapen teeth colour-wise, and his clothes looked as though he'd been rummaging in a garbage bin, and found them there.

"Now, let us begin the Sorting," Dumbledore said, stepping down.

The Sorting consisted of the first years trying on the Sorting Hat and it would tell them what House they belonged in. The four Houses at Hogwarts were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter belonged in Gryffindor, while Snape was in Slytherin.

The old Sorting Hat was placed on the stool and it sang:

I may look old and weary

And not much a pretty sight

But you will be surprised to find

That I am always right

It all started years ago

When Hogwarts first began

The four founders of the school

Made sure the place was grand

Godric Gryffindor chose students

If their heart was pure

Adventure sought his students

For what they could endure

Helga Hufflepuff chose hers

_Not_ for their wits and mind

But for those who could be humble

And for those who could be kind

Brains were what mattered more

To Rawena Ravenclaw

Students who possessed logic

Was what she always saw

Salazar Slytherin

Wasn't much for Muggleborns

What mattered more was power

That was where he drew the sword

But how to sort the students

After they were gone?

That is why I am here

For you, to sing my song

Before the founders went and died

The put their brains in me

So I could tell all first years

What House they ought to be

So put me on your head real tight

And wait for me to yell

Where you belong at Hogwarts

For I can speak as well!

The Great Hall burst into applause as the Hat closed its song.

Professor McGonagall stepped up with a long scroll in hand. She said, "When I call your name, you are to try on the Sorting Hat, and when it announces your House, you can go and join your House tables. Abernacky, Susan!"

A chubby girl with brown hair stepped timidly forward and placed the hat on her head. The hat cried, "Hufflepuff!"

"Anthrax Corinne!"

A small girl with bobby pigtails bounced up and jammed the hat over her head. It covered her entire face.

"Gryffindor!" the hat cried.

"Cole, James!"

"Ravenclaw!"

As the Sorting wore on, James's stomach rumbled painfully.

Finally, "Zahradin, Edna!" was sorted into "Ravenclaw!" and Dumbledore said, "Let the feast begin."

James dug in as though he hadn't eaten for a week.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: Yes, I really want to finish this story. Thanks for the reviews.

**Chapter 2: First Day Blues**

"Hello Remus," said James when he spotted his werewolf friend the next morning, "have a nice sleep?"

Remus cast James a death glare. "I noticed they didn't make you a _Prefect_," he shot back.

"'Cause you're the only good boy, aren't ya, Remus?" James laughed. "C'mon, let's get breakfast, I'm starved."

During breakfast, Sirius cast a look at their schedules. "We've got Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Bony Man," he said sourly, referring to the Head of Slytherin House, Professor Turbone. She was very unpleasant, and behind her back they called her Mr. Bone, though her name was Miss Turbone. The year before she had been the Astronomy teacher, but the last DADA professor had fled from the school because of one of James and Sirius's pranks, swearing to never come within fifty feet of them again.

"What else?" James asked, not paying much attention. He was looking down the table at Lily and her friends. They were all very pretty, but in his opinion no way compared to her beauty, with her vivid red locks and bright green eyes. He spotted one of her friends, a pretty brunette named Lisette, eyeing Sirius interestingly.

"After that, History of Magic, then lunch, then Herbology, then Muggle Studies; Very boring day. James? Your flight has landed – please return to Earth."

James looked at Sirius and rolled his eyes. "I don't even know why we're friends," he said with a grin. "My brain – is too – intelligent – for you," he said slowly, as though talking to a slow two-year-old.

"You wish," said Sirius.

Remus grinned. He knew that James and Sirius always ragged on each other only because they were as close as two friends could be. And who could blame them? Their families had been old friends, as they were some of the few completely pureblood families left in Britain (Remus and Peter only went back a few generations), and James and Sirius had known each other practically from birth (James was a few months older).

After finishing off the last bits of cereal and toast, they went down to the dungeons, where Defence classes were held. Professor Turbone, a tall, skinny woman with horn-rimmed glasses and a beaky nose (almost as beaky as Snape's), was already waiting for her class to arrive.

"Well, come on now, hurry it up," she barked at the few students that were lingering outside the classroom door.

She took her usual position in front of her desk, her infamous whip in hand – they all knew that she wasn't allowed to use it on them, but upon any whiff that the law had changed would advance on the first student on her radar like an eagle on prey.

"Well now," she said very nastily, "I see that you are all alive and healthy." Her tone made it sound as though she wished death upon each and every one of them, and sickness on the few who survived, if any.

"As you all have undoubtedly figured out by now, I am taking over the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am going to whip all of you snivelling brats into shape this year," she continued menacingly. "Your Ordinary Wizarding Levels are coming up at the end of this school year and every one of you pathetic, slug-like suckers of valuable air, who are ignorant enough to believe that you are worthy of the puss-encrusted sack you so fondly call skin better work your behinds like you've never worked before. I won't take any excuses this year for tardiness and abysmal work – no, no – make no mistake of that and I will not be spoon-feeding you from now on –" (Sirius muttered, "Like you ever even let us in the kitchen.") – "I am going to be on your tails like a hound dog sniffing out rabbits, should any of you fail and make me to look bad in front of the Ministry of Magic – because if you think that I am going to tolerate any of your previous behaviour it'll be _your_ necks, _not_ mine – a _hundred_ points off your house and detention – for all of you wretched idiots!"

She'd said all this barely moving her lips and very fast, though they caught every word. The entire class was left in an unpleasant silence.

"Do you read me?" she seethed.

"Yes, Professor Turbone," the class recited dully.

"Loud and clear Mr. Bone," said James sarcastically, after the whole class had finished.

"That's _Professor_ Turbone to you!" she growled angrily. She went down the aisle to glower at James with a look that would have sent a lion cowering.

"You, boy," she snarled furiously. "You've been a thorn in my side ever since you came to this school, and I'm warning you now, boy – you are on very thin ice. So thin…"

She gripped her whip tightly in one hand and stroked it lovingly with the other.

Professor Turbone glared at James for a long time before gliding back to her desk, her long black robes swishing behind her.

"Now," she said a bit more calmly, "let's get on with the lesson, shall we?"

They entered the History of Magic classroom an hour later with thoroughly dampened spirits. Mr. Bone had given them a huge pile of homework to be read through and completed by Wednesday. Not the next Wednesday – but the Wednesday two days away!

Professor Binns, a small, portly man who always carried a briefcase finally entered the classroom and sat down at his desk, a half-eaten sandwich in hand, and his tie only done up halfway.

"Hungry, Professor?" Sirius asked, grinning.

"Yes, Mr. Mack," he replied dully and absentmindedly – they would've thought after teaching them for four years, their correct names would've dawned on him.

History of Magic could've been one of the most exciting subjects on the schedule, what with all the war and fighting and all – but with Professor Binns's monotonous drone, it was a miracle for the entire class to still be awake after five minutes.

Sure enough, Eliza Beth Bingham's head began to droop five minutes later, lolling about, resting on her chest.

Did Binns ever notice? – Of course not. His nose was always firmly plastered to whatever book he was reading, and he never once looked up until the bell rang.

James slouched in his seat, stifling a yawn. He stole a glance at Lily, who was determinedly taking as many notes as she could on the Dwarf Act of the late 1400s.

Ripping a piece of parchment out of his scroll, he scribbled, "Hey Evans," crumpled it up and threw it on her desk.

She blinked as it landed on the paper she was writing on, blotching up her neatly printed notes. She scowled and looked up, to find James grinning sheepishly at her. She un-crumpled the parchment, looked at it for a second, scribbled something on the bottom, and threw it back at him, hard. It bounced off his forehead, and landed on his lap. She giggled at her good aim.

At the bottom of the parchment, it read, "Go away Potter."

He sighed. Turning it over, he wrote, "Come on, I'm just trying to be nice." He threw it at her again. Once again, she opened it, scribbled a reply, crumpled it, and threw it back. This time, though, he caught it.

He grinned at her to see if she was impressed by his skills. Apparently not. She was still taking notes from the monotonous bore-for-even-a-teacher.

He opened it up, and frowned. " 'Not interested'?" he whispered aloud, reading her response. He mentally wondered what was wrong with her. All the other girls would have him willingly, and he was choosing her. Was she blind to his charms? Or was she just blind?

He didn't try to persuade her for the rest of the class, but followed her to the Great Hall for lunch.

Sirius caught up with him. "Give it up, man," he said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"No," said James stubbornly. "I've got to make her see that I'm not a bad guy. Just watch."

He passed where Lily and her friends were sitting, ruffling up his hair even more to enhance his windswept look. He strutted around hopelessly; catching every girl's attention except for the one he wanted, when suddenly, his opportunity to be the Good Guy arose.

Corinne Anthrax, the bubbly blonde with the pigtails was crying a few feet in front of Lily, surrounded by her peers.

James was just about to ask her what was the matter when he heard one of the boys saying, "Her name is Anthrax! It's a disease – so if you touch her, you'll get it too!"

Corinne wailed even more loudly.

James honestly felt a pang of sympathy towards her. All her age mates were ridiculing her, and though he'd never experienced that before, he could imagine what it would feel like.

"Hey Corinne," he said in his best friendly attitude.

She looked up through her tears, her lower lip trembling. "You – you know my name?" she asked in awe.

"Yep," said James. "Are all these people bothering you?"

"Yes," she said in an accusatory tone. "Jamie started it, then Toby, then everyone. They say I have a – a – a cow disease!" she wailed.

James patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. "Well, of course you don't," he said kindly. Then to the other kids, "_I'm_ touching her, aren't I? Am _I_ diseased now?"

"It probably doesn't kick in for twenty-four hours," said one of the little brats snidely.

James stiffened with anger, and withdrew his hand from Corinne. "What's your name?" he asked calmly.

The boy looked confused. "Er – Jamie Cole."

"Listen, kid," James said, "Do you believe in Father Christmas?"

"No!" said James in outrage. "Only little kids do!" he added, as though he weren't a little kid.

"Good," replied James with a little smug smile. "Then you surely won't mind when all you get for Christmas is a great fat lump of _coal_, courtesy of Saint Nick because Father Christmas doesn't like little boys who make fun of little girls. It doesn't feel so nice to have your name made fun of now, does it?"

Jamie gulped fearfully, but out of intimidation of James than the prospect of no Christmas presents. James knew he could be pretty menacing when he wanted to be.

"But," James continued, raising a finger, "If you leave Corinne alone, and stop making fun of her, maybe you'll get something extra cool for Christmas." He winked, knowing very well that what he was saying was a complete lie – but it was for a good cause.

"Yes Sir," Jamie said solemnly, and then he ran of with his friends.

James turned back to Corinne. "Feel better now?" he asked.

She nodded vigorously. "Yes! Thank you!" With that, she leapt up and gave him a big hug. Surprised and a little embarrassed, James grinned and stole a quick peek at Lily.

She was heading his way.

Corinne jumped up from him and went to go find her friends.

"Smooth," said Lily, standing over him. "But showing your 'sensitive side' isn't going to get me to like you, or even be able to stand you. I still think you're a worthless, self-centred piece of scum. Try harder next time."

With that, she turned on her heel, leaving James gaping after her. Snapping back to reality, he spotter Peter, Sirius and Remus staring at him.

"Ouch," said Peter. "Besides being told off, you missed lunch. But we got a show, too."

"That was a nice thing you did, though, James, sticking up for that girl like that," praised Remus. "It was Prefect-worthy, even if you did do it for all the wrong reasons."

Suddenly, Sirius's shocked face split into a malevolent grin. In disbelief, he said, " '_Sir_' ?"

-

Supper couldn't come quickly enough for James. He'd had to endure hours of hearing his stomach rumble, and he felt weak.

Herbology and Muggle Studies passed by as a blur. He couldn't remember a thing – all he could grasp was something to do with dangerous airplanes and flying spider-plants. Or something to that effect.

Besides dinner, he had to get a jump-start on all his homework. After only a day – and the first day of school – the fifth years already had mountains of Defence Against the Dark Arts due Wednesday, a two-foot long essay on why the dwarves raided Britain due Friday, a Herbology flow chart on the behaviours of the spider-plant due Friday, and the basic coordinates of the airplane drawn and labelled to be due Monday. They'd never had a bigger homework pileup in one day in their entire history at Hogwarts.

That night in the common room, James started on his Defence Against the Dark Arts first, as it was the most work he had to do, and it was due in two days.

He was finding it very hard to concentrate on how to block unfriendly curses and jinxes, for all he could hear were Peter's squeals of frustration and desperation, at being utterly hopeless in completing his work.

Finally, when the common room was almost empty, he gave up. "Forget it," he said at last. "I can't concentrate."

Sirius and Peter looked at James curiously – he was staring out the window. Sirius was sure that if he bothered to look, he'd see the Whomping Willow.

"I wish it was a full moon," said James wistfully. "That'd give us something to do."

"Why don't we visit Remus?" suggested Sirius. "He's still in the hospital wing because of yesterday. You know Madam Pomfrey – always fussing over a headache."

"She'll shoo us out," said Peter fearfully. Any risk of getting in trouble was pretty much off-putting for him, but made his two friends all the more for it.

"We can use the Cloak," said James offhandedly, referring to the Invisibility Cloak his father had brought him from France for his eleventh birthday.

"Come on, Peter," said Sirius exasperatedly. "Curfew is nine o'clock. It's only nine thirty. Stop being such a baby."

Peter pulled a face that made it look as though he'd run headlong into a brick wall after eating a lemon.

"Whatever," said James, getting to his feet. "Me and Sirius are going – if you don't want to, fine, but don't get your knickers all up in a bunch."

"I don't wear knickers!" shot Peter indignantly to James's retreating back as Sirius barked doglike.

Two minutes later James came down with the Invisibility Cloak in hand. Peter hastened to agree to come and the three of them got under it, and headed out the portrait hole entrance. On the third staircase down they met Mr. Filch, muttering to himself about pesky little children, but swiftly moved out of his way so that he wouldn't bump into them. As they were passing the Great Hall, they thought they saw someone run out of sight toward the dungeons, but continued to walk across the hall until they reached the hospital wing.

As they shuffled along quietly, James thought about how painful it was for their friend to transform. Remus had to be taken down to the Whomping Willow every month; a violent tree that they'd been banned to go near in their first year after Davey Gudgeon, now in his seventh year, had tried to poke it in a dare and nearly lost and eye. The tree had in fact been planted in their first year for Remus's use, to guard the room below, where he turned into a werewolf. And after every transformation, he was sent to the hospital wing, because with lack of human meat, he bit at himself.

Slowly, they pushed open the door to the wing and peaked inside. The matron was nowhere in sight. They edged their way in; Sirius bending his knees a bit to ensure that they were completely covered by the Cloak. Only two beds were occupied – as they got closer, they saw that Madam Pomfrey was bustling about a bed as she muttered to herself, "…Oh dear, oh dear… They really should come up with an antidote for this, poor boy…"

James, Sirius and Peter drew closer and saw a brown head poking out from just above the blanket.

"Remus, here, drink this," Madam Pomfrey said is a busy-like tone and handed the boy in the bed a glass of some greyish-liquid as he sat up.

Madam Pomfrey pushed him back down onto the bed. "Lie down!" she snapped fondly. "It'll help with the bruises… Just take a rest – nuh – nuh – don't try to speak – shh! – just lay down and go to sleep… you need to _rest_."

She left the bed and went through a door on the other side of the room, while Remus sighed in an exasperated and frustrated fashion and turned over on his side to face his friends. He had to keep himself from screaming to find the three of them standing there, as they'd taken off the cloak while he was still facing the other direction.

His eyes jerking back as though to check if Madam Pomfrey was still gone, Remus whispered frantically, "What are you guys doing here? D'you know how much trouble we could all get in if you're caught? It's after hours! Why are – "

"Shut up," said Sirius with a grin. "We just came to say hi."

"Well, hello," said Remus, "and goodbye. Madam Pomfrey could be back any minute – "

"This is the thanks we get?" said James, in a feigned hurt voice. "We just wanted to visit you – "

"Well, I appreciate it but I'm also a Prefect!" Remus shot back. "This isn't cool, you guys, you have to go back to the common room."

"Or what?" James challenged. "You'll go tell the bloody teacher on us? You'll report us? Your own friends?"

"James," warned Sirius, "let's just go. Come on."

With an angry look at Remus, James threw the Cloak over himself, Sirius and Peter and without a backwards glance, proceeded back to the common room. Remus had ruined his fun, and to James, that was considered the biggest offence.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: I know that in the first book it said that James was a Chaser, but I made him a Seeker in this story for two reasons – one, in the first movie on the trophy it said he was a Seeker, and JK Rowling obviously changed it for a reason. And two, in the Order of the Phoenix James was playing with the Snitch and not the Quaffle.

--

**Chapter 3: Fruitless Love**

The next afternoon dragged by torturously slow. James was being oddly formal to Remus, and when asked about whether he was peeved from the last night, he denied it. His mood showed especially when he started putting the Quick-Legs Jinx on first year students that (in his opinion) didn't walk fast enough in the halls. He was itching for something to do, something to happen. It was only the second day of classes, yet he needed some excitement.

"When's the next full moon?" he asked impatiently on their way to Transfiguration.

"A long time from now," said Remus heavily, "and I'm glad."

"Wasn't that fun last year, though?" asked James, seemingly directing his question at Sirius and Peter.

"Yeah!"

"I guess," mumbled Remus reluctantly.

"That's it," decided James, "I'm going next month."

"Going where?"

They turned around to see Snape looking at them curiously.

James said very sarcastically, "To go have spot of tea with a werewolf – none of your business."

Snape looked at them from around his beaky nose. "I hope it's nothing illegal…" he said, and they all knew that he would love to catch them doing something exactly of that nature.

"Get lost, Snivellus," said James. "And while you're at it, get your nose fixed."

"Now, now, James," called Professor McGonagall as they entered the classroom. "Any more bullying and I am afraid I will have to take points."

Even as head of Gryffindor house, Professor McGonagall had no objection to taking points away from her own house – she was very strict, but just as fair.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter took their seats in the third row, right behind Snape, and in front of Lily. A few of the girls giggled as James and Sirius took their seats (except for Lily, of course) and though James didn't even notice, Sirius looked back to flash them all a lovable grin.

As McGonagall refreshed their minds with review on transfiguring animals into objects, James shot hot red sparks out of his wand at the back of Snape's head. Snape turned around furiously, feeling his hair and looking around for the culprit, but James stared innocently at McGonagall, twiddling his thumbs, as though he were deeply interested in the lesson.

Lily had spotted this and gave James a look of disgust at the back of his head, so he didn't catch it.

After that, James decided that he'd better listen to his teacher and behave if he wanted to keep up his top marks. He only paused once to hit Snape with a tickling charm for less than two seconds, causing Snape to laugh suddenly, for no apparent reason. Every eye turned to Snape's burning face, and McGonagall had stopped teaching.

"Do you find something funny with the words 'coat hanger'?" she asked acidly.

"No ma'am," Snape replied with a completely straight face.

Professor McGonagall gave him a calculating look above her spectacles. Finally, she said, "Then save your laughter for when you are amused."

Sirius, James and Peter sniggered along with most of the class. But what James didn't realize was that he was making Lily like him less and less.

-

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_Been keeping real busy at school. I've already got tons of homework and it's only the second day._

_I hope you're both well. Remus made Prefect, I'm really jealous._

_Just wrote to say hello, hope I'll be seeing you soon. Have you made any plans for the Christmas holidays for us? Write me soon._

_James._

James folded up his finished letter and tied it to one of the owls in the Owlery. He let it fly into the dusk.

He sighed. He'd only written what he'd thought would make his mother happy; she didn't approve of his werewolf friend (she didn't know that Remus was a werewolf, she just disliked him), so therefore, James wrote her that Remus was a Prefect in an attempt to make her lighten up, and wrote it as though he, James, cared. She always loved planning trips to foreign countries for Christmas, so therefore he asked her about it as thought he really gave a damn where they went.

As he stood there thinking about his mother in the midst of all the owl droppings, the door to the Owlery opened.

"Hey Evans," he said, suddenly flirtatious, as though trying to cover up his mixed up feelings inside.

"Don't you ever give up?" Lily asked impatiently, trying to find a good owl.

"Well, practice makes perfect."

He immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing because she turned her back to him and said, "Humph."

James cringed, then sighed. "Why do you hate me so much?"

Ignoring him, she began to tie her letter to a handsome Screech owl.

"What have I done so horrible for you to hate me?" he persisted.

She straightened up, glaring at him in the face. "I don't _hate_ you."

"See, that's what I'm talking about," he said, cowering under her fiery green gaze. "What have I done to make you look at me like _that_?"

What have you done?" she repeated, as though he should know. "You are so – despicable. I judge people on how they treat others, Potter, and you have the audacity to ask me what you've done? If you can't even see how foul you are, then I'm right about you."

James looked at her, startled. "When have I ever treated you wrong? Whatever it was, I apologize, I really am sorry."

Lily made a very loud "tut" noise, turned on her heel, slid a little on the owl droppings, and left James to wonder what she could mean.

-

That night in the common room Sirius, James and Peter sat by the fire thinking up plans on their next moon adventure (well, Peter was mainly trying to catch up on his Potions homework and occasionally putting in a "yeah" or a "great"). Remus caught them at it while they'd been planning a trip into Hogsmeade.

"No way," he said from behind them, and surprised to hear someone else's voice, the other three turned around.

"No way what?" asked James, wondering how much of their conversation Remus had heard.

"No way are we even _thinking_ of leaving the shack," insisted Remus. "It's bad enough that you guys became – " he lowered his voice " – Animagi _illegally_ to come see me, but to leave the shack… I could hurt somebody."

"No you won't," argued Sirius lazily. "I'm a dirty great dog and James is a – " he sniggered " – stag."

"Hey!" said James indignantly. "There's nothing wrong with being a stag!"

Sirius ignored him. "We can keep you in check if you get out of hand."

"But still," said Remus lamely, not having anything to complain about.

In truth, it sounded like a whole lot of fun. Able to roam Hogsmeade with his friends, free of rules and – wait, he was a Prefect – he couldn't let this happen.

"No," he said firmly.

"Remus, are you mad?" said James. "Would you rather stay cooped up in the shack where you can beat yourself up, or come with us to Hogsmeade and have a load of fun?"

Remus pondered this. It _would_ be really nice to have a bit of space to move around, and Sirius and James _would_ be larger than him and able to pin him down if he got out of control. But if he gave them the slip while they weren't looking, he could hurt someone. But company would be nice, too – he had to admit, the full moon in June hadn't been nearly as bad as the rest, when they'd kept him company in the shack.

"But if anything goes wrong…"

Sirius promised, "Then you can say 'I told you so'. So we're in for next month?"

Remus seriously doubted that he wouldn't have anything more to worry about than to say 'I told you so' to Sirius if he got out of hand, for they'd get in a lot worse trouble. But it would be nice to have a bit of company…

"Yeah, I suppose so," he said reluctantly.

"Definitely!" whispered James.

"All right," agreed Peter.

"Cool," said Sirius with a grin and checking his watch. "Well, I'll see you guys later, but I've got some business to attend to. Goodnight."

With that, he slipped out of the portrait hole. Sirius always had that charm to persuade people like that – in the end, he always got what he wanted, didn't he?

-

"All right, team, this is my last year at Hogwarts to prove we've got the best Quidditch team. Now, we've won six straight years, so let's keep the winning streak up, all right?"

It was Gryffindor's first Quidditch practice of the season, and Eric Kidman, Gryffindor captain and Beater, was giving the team a little pep talk before they went out. Their team consisted of Eric as one Beater and Sirius as the other; the three Chasers were Lily, a tall third year named Michael Sting, and the Head Girl Celestina Warbeck; Lily's friend, Katrina Mason played as Keeper, and James was the Seeker.

Determinedly, the team set out to the Quidditch pitch, into the frosty morning air.

"Let's start with Drill A," Eric yelled as the team kicked off from their broomsticks.

James felt like he'd never flown before on his top-of-the-range Cannon Ball. Being on a racing broom again gave him new life, as he zigzagged across the pitch. He loved everything to do with Quidditch – everything from the wind whipping through his hair to the competitiveness to the teamwork. When he reached the end goalposts he flew in a downward spiral around the middle one, them expertly manoeuvred his broom back up again.

"When you're done showing off you're welcome to join us, James," came Eric's irritable voice. "Hurry it up, though, would you?"

Embarrassed, but grinning, James got in proper formation. Katrina sat on her broom, ready, perfectly positioned between the three goalposts. The rest of the team quickly passed around the Quaffle to confuse her, when finally, Michael chucked it at the left hoop.

Katrina caught it easily and they cheered.

Though they hadn't played together since the Quidditch championship game the year before, the team was still flawless, and just as incredible as ever.

With three superb Chasers, two amazing Beaters, an excellent Keeper, and a Seeker who's never been unsuccessful in catching the Snitch even once, the Gryffindor side looked almost invincible. Their chances for winning the cup this year were very high indeed.

Sirius seemed even more determined than ever to be the best – his brother Regulus was a Beater for the Slytherin team, and he wanted so badly to show him up. Come to think of it, half the Slytherin team was Sirius' family.

"Keep up the good work, James," Eric called, when James caught the Snitch for the second time.

Through the whole practice, Eric would say encouraging things like, "Nice save, Kat," or "If you held the Quaffle under your arm it'd be easier for you to pull it out and score. But you're doing great."

Finally, at lunchtime, James touched down with the rest of the team to change and head for the Great Hall. In the Entrance Hall, he found himself side by side with Lily.

"You were really good out there," James said, in an attempt to carry out a conversation.

"Thanks," Lily said stiffly. "You were all right. I guess," she mumbled as an afterthought.

So she wasn't going to compliment him – he could live with that. But he couldn't stand the fact that she despised him so much.

"Uh – thanks," James replied uncertainly. Inwardly, he wondered why he even bothered. She never gave him the time of day. He took another desperate stab at making friendly talk. "Er – I like your earrings."

He knew he'd said the right thing because she smiled at him. For once, she actually _smiled_ at _him_.

_This is why I bother_, he thought to himself. If she always smiled at him like that, he would do anything to make her happy.

Lily touched the shell-shaped pearls lightly. "Thanks," she said genuinely. "My mum bought them for me."

"She's – a muggle, right?" James asked.

"Yes," Lily replied. "Both my parents are."

He was about to reply when what seemed like a small pink canon ball ran into his stomach. (No, Lily did not punch him) A small round face with bright blue eyes looked at him, grinning toothily.

"Hi Corinne," James said, trying not to sound annoyed.

Her blonde curly hair now rippled freely about her shoulders and he could see that she was wearing pink bell-bottoms and a white blouse under her robes, once she let him go from her death-grip hug.

"James!" she squealed. "I saw you outside on your broomstick playing Gwibbitch – "

" – Quidditch," James corrected, as Lily burst into a tiny fit of giggles.

" – And I don't know how to play myself, but I know you must be very good, because how could you not be? We start Flying lessons next week and I'm ever so excited because I've never been on a broom. Well, actually I have, I was sweeping the floor listening to The Ramones on the radio and watching 'Bewitched' and I tried to see if I could ride a broomstick but of course I couldn't, I didn't know that I was a witch until I got my letter from Hogwarts. Though now that I think about it, I think I may have hovered a few inches above the ground for about a millisecond, but I can't be sure of that. And – what was I talking about in the first place?"

James stared at her, completely at a loss for words. Finally, he spluttered, "Bewitched?"

Lily laughed. "It's a muggle television show that they watch to amuse themselves."

_What in the name of Merlin is television?_

James still didn't understand, but he nodded as though he did. In spite of everything, he couldn't get over the shock of Corinne bursting in like that. He'd always thought her to be quiet and shy, not talkative and boisterous. And he couldn't help thinking that she'd interrupted his one civil moment with Lily Evans.

Lily slowly sidled away, leaving James to listen to Corinne rambling on about how pleased she was to be at Hogwarts. Frankly, at the moment, James wished he could've been anywhere but there.

---

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	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4: The Weekly Filch Operation**

_Dear James,_

_We're glad you're still staying on top of your work; we're expecting top marks from your O.W.L.s! If the workload becomes too much you could always resign from Quidditch, you know we're behind you one hundred percent._

_We're both doing very well, and wish you the best. Don't feel too bad that Remus made Prefect and you didn't. In our hearts you'll always be the perfect little gentleman. (What was Dumbledore thinking?)_

_I have made plans for the holidays, Darling, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until then to find out – it's a surprise! I'm only going to tell you that it's going to be a very exciting Christmas._

_Anyhow, it's too early to think about Christmas, but I'm delighted you asked. I'll post you when it comes time to iron out the little details._

_See you around the holidays,_

_Love,_

_Mum._

James re-read the letter twice. She couldn't be serious? Quit Quidditch? It was the best thing for him in the world. Quidditch was his life. He appreciated her suggestion, but was going to flat out refuse it.

Though, as the weeks wore on, it didn't seem such a bad idea. The late night Quidditch practices, homework pile, and occasional detention from Mr. Bone were beginning to take its toll on James. And for the past three days it had been steadily pouring cats and dogs outside, soaking up the Quidditch pitch. To come into the Great Hall every morning to a grey and dreary ceiling was very irksome.

But he would NEVER quit Quidditch. It was one of the rare times he could even talk to Lily, and flying was bliss.

One person who seemed even more tired and stressed than James was Remus. He'd had to hurry to catch up on homework, because of the times Madam Pomfrey would insist on checking up on him and keep him in the hospital wing at nights. Some of the teachers had taken a little pity on him and lessened his work, but of course, Professors Turbone and McGonagall weren't prone to making any allowances for anybody. The purple bags under Remus's tired grey eyes and worry lines across his forehead made him look much older than fifteen.

"You've been looking kind of peaky for the past couple of weeks, Lupin," Snape observed shrewdly during Potions, sounding very unsympathetic.

"Keep poking your nose in his business and you'll be looking 'kind of peaky' too," said James angrily, trying to keep his focus on putting exactly one ounce of crushed nettles into his steaming cauldron every six seconds.

"You can't blame him," said Sirius, doing the same. "The poor lad has such a big nose that every time he turns around it hits someone, and he can't help but butt in."

Snape chose to ignore this. "I find it very interesting, Lupin, that you always seem to be 'in the hospital wing' during certain times of the year, and yet, you're not always there. Like at the start of term feast. What could you _possibly_ be doing?"

"He's a schoolboy by day and a superhero by night," said James sarcastically. "Go away Snivellus, before this gets rough."

"It is none of your business where I am or what I'm doing," said Remus calmly. "But I assure you that it is nothing illegal, for if it was, Professor Dumbledore would surely know, because he is aware of everything that goes on in this school. And it would be wise for you to turn around and take heed to your cauldron because your potion is eight seconds overdue of adding the bicorn horn."

James, Sirius and Peter all laughed as Snape scrambled to repair his already useless potion. They loved it when Remus told people off – which was very rare – as he was always calm and collected, and you could never argue with his logical reasoning. He was wise and witty enough to be in Ravenclaw.

Professor Slughorn, Potions Master, called them up one by one at the end of class to place their samples of Potion on his desk. To their delight, he scolded Snape, who was usually one of the best at Potions in the year, for his chunky Veriteserum.

James made his way leisurely through the halls with his friends as they talked happily about their first Hogsmeade visit, and how they couldn't wait to replenish their gags at Zonko's Joke Shop.

Suddenly, someone called, "Potter! Black!"

They turned around to see a harassed-looking Eric Kidman making his way toward them.

"Yes?"

"We're having an emergency Quidditch meeting at seven o'clock tonight in the Charms classroom. Be there."

"Why?" asked Sirius.

"We need to work out a new strategy for our game against Slytherin."

"But that's weeks away!" exclaimed James.

"Yes, but Slytherin have switched up their team a bit," Eric countered. "Bellatrix Black is the new Captain and Seeker, and Narcissa Black, who used to be a Chaser, is now the Keeper."

This news came as somewhat of a shock to Sirius – Bellatrix and Narcissa were his cousins, but Bella was in her seventh year and Narcissa was in her sixth year.

"You see," continued Eric, "this completely throws off our planning scheme. The old Slytherin captain, Rushmount, was a pushover. Bellatrix is stricter and very focused on winning – she will work the team until the cows come home. That's why we've got to train twice as hard. And Narcissa? I hear she's got a really strong defense going. _And we're not going to lose to Slytherin_."

"All right, all right," Sirius said with a laugh. "You've got us in the bag."

"So you'll be there?" Eric asked anxiously.

"Yeah," they both agreed.

-

_Why do we have to go to that stupid meeting?_ James thought, as he tried to finish his seven hundred-word essay on '_the properties of the Pain Freezing Solution, where to find them and how to apply them_'. He only had twenty minutes left to write two hundred, fifty-two more words, then try to start on his History of Magic homework.

What a life.

He and Sirius tramped down to the Charms classroom promptly at seven o'clock, and arrived there ten minutes late.

"Where have you been?" Eric snapped irritably. Without waiting for an answer, he gestured toward a large sheet covered with frantically scribbled drawings with his wand and continued, "These will be our staring positions.

"Michael, you try to get the Quaffle first, while Celestina is waiting for you with Lily at the end of the pitch. Zoom across the pitch and hand it to Celestina, where she will drop it about ten feet to where Lily is waiting to score into the left hoop.

"Sirius, me and you will just tail the two Bludgers as usual. Keep it _away_ from the Slytherin Beaters, so that they can't try to attack anyone on our team.

"James, you need to find that Snitch as fast as possible, before Bellatrix does. Now, she doesn't have as good a broom as yours – only a Rocket One – but she's still a very good flyer. Don't be too relaxed about the game, because it would be very shameful if you lounged around and she caught the Snitch right from under your nose."

As he said this, he prodded the crude drawings with his wand, and they performed a play by play.

"I do not just _lounge around_," James insisted indignantly. "It's just… part of my winning strategy."

Eric snorted. "Your strategy to sleep on the job? Anyway, I know you'll pull through, you always do. And Katrina? Just keep your eye on the Quaffle. Relax, but stay focused, and we should be fine."

Eric checked his watch. "You know…" he said slowly. "We could probably throw in a practice right now. Remember our strategy, team, and let's hit the change rooms. Meeting dismissed."

The practice didn't go as well as planned because, though the rain had subsided, the pitch was still muddy and wet. And one thing James hadn't banked on was time. It was nearly ten o'clock when Eric finally called it quits, and he still had his History of Magic pre-quiz to start on to revise.

Him and Sirius sneaked quietly back up to the school, knowing very well that their muddy sneakers would not be appreciated. Sure enough, Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, cut them off from the stairway. Wherever she was, he was always nearby.

Naturally, they heard Filch's unpleasant voice from ahead of them, "Is there a student out of bed, my dearest?"

He appeared around the corner, holding an old lantern. He set eyes on the mud trail James and Sirius had left and they widened.

"You pigs!" he snarled. "I've had to run around this school all year cleaning up after you mangy mutts, but all you ever do is make messes! I've had it this time – Potter, Black, come with me."

James tried to argue at the injustice of the fact that the whole team was muddy and not just them, but Filch would have none of it. He led them to his tiny office on the first floor and told them to sit in the moth-eaten chairs in front of his desk. Meanwhile, he looked for two empty folders.

Across one, he wrote JAMES POTTER and across the other, SIRIUS BLACK. He wrote on two separate sheets of parchment "Crime: Vandalizing the School".

"It was mud from our shoes!" Sirius protested.

"You could've wiped your feet on the _dry_ porch!" Filch shot back. He continued to write.

"Punishment: Detention."

He thought for a moment, as though treasuring a pleasant memory. "I think… I shall put you, Mr. Black, in the trophy room, and you, Mr. Potter, in Greenhouse Three next Friday… split up the Deadly Duo… Be grateful it isn't worse. Now get out of my office."

As they left Filch's office, they saw him put the sheets of parchment in their corresponding folders and place them in his filing cabinet.

"Stupid git," said Sirius angrily, once out of earshot of Mr. Filch. "Giving us detention."

James nodded in agreement. "All he'd have to do is whip out his wand and clean up the tiny mess, but he had to be a great wanker about it."

"I wish the Giant Squid in the lake would just eat him," said Sirius sourly.

"No…" said James slowly, like a light bulb was turned on in his head – his eyes went wide in excitement, "but _we_ could do just as bad, if not, worse."

"What are you playing at?" asked Sirius.

"Well," said James, "we always pull pranks for fun. And we never get into serious trouble… We could make Filch's life a living hell."

Sirius grinned, but looked a bit sceptical. "And what if we _do_ get into serious trouble?"

"We won't," James said confidently. "Trust me on this one."

"Are you serious?"

"No, you're Sirius. I'm James, nice to meet you."

"Shut up man, you know what I mean."

James ran a hand through his messy black hair. "Okay, okay," he said with a small laugh. "We won't do anything that will get us in any serio – I mean major trouble, so you have nothing to worry about. Come on, Black, are you wimping out on me?"

Sirius grinned. "All right, Potter, what do we do first?"

James grinned back. "We have to completely destroy the school, after all, it's Filch's job to clean it."

Sirius laughed. "Kind of like trying to get detention on purpose? My dear friend, I do say, you might be onto something, James."

-

Phase one of the operation took place the day before detention.

First, James and Sirius had charmed the suits of armour to say insulting things whenever Filch passed them. When Filch walked down the halls, all he could hear were things like "Ugly!" or "Smelly!" and no one would be around to pin the blame on. The charm was too weak to last more than a couple of days (it was advanced O.W.L. level), but they thought it'd be fun while it lasted.

Next, they sneaked down to the kitchens, where the house elves piled them with cakes and pies. Remus spotted their armfuls.

"What're you guys doing?" he asked suspiciously. "You know if it's something bad, I'll have to report you and take points. I can't ignore my Prefect duties…"

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said offhandedly. "Spare us the lecture. We're just hungry."

Remus let them pass, but they didn't feel safe until they turned the corner by Filch's office. They hid behind a statue of The Lonely Maiden, looking out to see if Filch was around. They pulled out their wands, and using a banishing charm, James and Sirius pelted the desserts at Filch's office door.

"Now, he'll have to clean this up," Sirius said gleefully. "Hey… I wonder if we can get into his office?"

James ran to the door with his wand out, bent over, in case someone came. "Alohomora," he whispered, and to their amazement, the door creaked open.

"He didn't seal it by magic like all the teachers!" said James in surprise.

"Maybe he wasn't expecting anyone to break in," Sirius shrugged.

"Well, we need to leave a kind of signature behind," said James, searching around for ideas. "Sort of like bandits, a clue to help him figure out who we are, but not too quickly."

"What about S AND J?" Sirius asked.

"Nah," James disagreed. "Something a little more… personal. Like a print." Suddenly, brilliance struck. "I'll leave my stag hoof print, and you leave your dog paw print!"

Sirius looked a bit sceptical. "And how, might I say, are we going to achieve that?"

"Oh, we can't do that now," agreed James. "Let's just leave a note."

James conjured of a little bit of parchment that read: SURPRISE! WE DECORATED YOUR OFFICE DOOR FOR YOU. YOUR FAVOURITE STUDENTS,

JAMES AND SIRIUS

Meanwhile, Sirius performed a sealing charm on the door to keep the food from falling off.

"There," he said satisfied, as they admired their handiwork. "And he'll have a new surprise every week."

-

James's idea of a signature became evident that evening. While Remus and Peter were in the Great Hall, they transformed, dipped one hoof and one paw into a spilled bottle of ink, and stamped it on parchment. Turning back into humans, they used a clever little 'replica' charm James had found and sealed them into their wands, which would now sign things at their every whim.

They were quite impressed with themselves, heading off to detention the next night, especially when they saw what a tirade Filch was in.

"You!" he said, his yellow eyes bulging. "Because of you two, I had to spend all last night cleaning my office door! Do you think this is funny?"

James had shivered in a silent fit of laughter.

"Apparently, he does," Sirius said coolly. "One does laugh when one is amused, doesn't one? Why anyone would ask such a ridiculous question is beyond me."

The tiny purple veins in Filch's neck suddenly throbbed to thick, pulsating _vines_.

"_NEVER_ TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!" Filch screamed. "Now – Give me your wands!"

Neither of them moved.

"Give me your wands!" Filch repeated. "You are you be cleaning your respected rooms _without magic_, while I contact your Head of Household. Now give me your wands."

Reluctantly, James and Sirius thrust their wands into Filch's hand. Filch stalked off, while Mrs. Norris glared at the two friends, as though _daring_ them to step out of line.

"Do you think he's going to perform the Priori Incantatem?"

"Let's hope not," said Sirius heavily.

They split up, Sirius heading toward the Trophy Room and James outside, toward the Greenhouses.

He knew that the last spell him and Sirius had cast was their signature copier, because they hadn't used their wands all day (they'd had Muggle Studies, History of Magic, Defence note-taking, and Herbology), and knew that if Filch realized what it meant, it would completely throw off their plan.

Much to James's dismay, Greenhouse Three was a total mess. Half of the Bobotuber Plant's sacks had erupted, and the nasty smell of sticky puss was covering the place, as well as the puss itself. The Tantacula Plant was completely entangled with the watering cans and a few Mandrake pots. Four of the spider-plants had become enormous and were destroying everything in sight (they were more like gigantic tarantulas than spiders) – and James had to be careful not to get bitten by any of them. Plus, one particularly fat spider-plant had begun spinning thick, black, poisonous webs and the smell was just dreadful. Meanwhile, a few garden gnomes had found their way into the greenhouse from the Forbidden Forest.

James had only been given a pair of gloves, a rake, a hoe, a pickaxe and some gasoline spray to soften the webs to be able to plough through them afterwards. As he plundered through the huge mess, trying to ignore the gnomes' jeering, he hated Sirius with every fibre of his being. He would've given anything to work in the Trophy Room instead, and was sure that Sirius wouldn't have to work nearly as hard as he was at the moment.

It was past midnight when James finally threw the last Garden Gnome into the Forest, and headed up to the school for a quick wash.

Instead of heading toward the Gryffindor Boys' shower, he went to the Prefect bathroom, after grabbing his bathrobe. He'd always known the passwords since his second year, and this would be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the Olympic-sized tub and many bath scents.

At the entrance to the bathroom, he said the password ("Rosemary") and it opened. He'd barely taken two steps when he heard a strangled shriek from inside.

"Lily!" he gasped, then immediately turned around, his face burning red.

Only Lily's flaming red hair and flaming red face could be seen above the water, because she'd bent her knees so low that just her head could be seen, which wasn't even necessary because the bath water was a thick lilac colour, due to all the different soaps.

"James!" she said in outrage, to the back of his head. "This is the PREFECT bathroom! Get out!"

Obediently, without a word, James rushed out of there as quickly as he could, thinking, "Who takes a bath at one in the morning!"

--

Author's note: Hmmm sound familiar? lol


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note: Potterchick1 I remember your screen name, do you remember reading this story two years ago? Or it might've been my other story, but I do remember you from somewhere.

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**Chapter 5: Union of Marauders**

The next morning, James went to go find Lily to apologize about the little bathroom incident. He found her in the common room, chatting with a few of her friends.

"Hi Lily," James said a little shyly, not sure if he should interrupt.

She looked up at him and turned a dark shade of pink. "Potter," she said, evading looking him in the eye.

James stuck his hands in the pockets of his robes and gave her a small smile. "Sorry 'bout last night," he said.

She finally looked at him, but he didn't take it as a good sign because it was more like a glare, while her friends dissolved into giggles.

"Are you going to report me?" he asked.

It was hard for her to admit, even to herself, that if she reported him, it would raise further questions about why _she_ was out of bed after hours – and that would mean explaining her weird dreams that she couldn't even remember herself. "No," she said through gritted teeth.

"Cool!" James grinned. "Well… I'll be seeing you."

As he turned away he heard one of Lily's friends teasing, "And what were you and James Potter doing last night?" They all giggled and Lily replied, "Ha, ha, very funny Maria."

James rolled his eyes, but grinned all the same. He would've loved to have joined Lily in the bath…

He found Sirius, Remus and Peter in the Great Hall, planning their little adventure for the next full moon.

"We're thinking of prowling the school," explained Sirius. "See, last night, I found a secret passageway from the astronomy tower to the kitchens – a very useful shortcut, of course, I skipped seven flights of stairs… There must be plenty more around."

"You know," said James thoughtfully. "It's a bit dangerous to talk about this stuff in public. We don't want people to know what we're up to."

Sirius tapped his goblet of pumpkin juice with his quill, thinking. "I've got it!" he exclaimed quietly. "We need nicknames."

"Yeah," agreed Peter. "That'd be rad."

"Preferably to do with, you know, our animals," put in Remus. "Like… I turn into – you-know-what – at the full moon, so I could be… Moony."

"Yeah!" said James excitedly. "That's wicked brilliant, Moony. What shall my name be…?"

"I could be Padfoot!" said Sirius, grinning.

James grinned back. "Padfoot…" he repeated to himself. "That really fits you, Sirius. Well, I'm a stag, so I could be… Prongs."

"Prongs?" repeated Remus. "I like that. What about you, Peter?"

"How about Ratface?" said Sirius, with a snigger. "Or Whiskers?"

Remus gave Sirius a disapproving look. "That was uncalled for." He sighed. "What d'you think, Peter?"

"Um… Er –" was all Peter could say. He wasn't as quick to make things up on the spot as his friends were.

"What about Longtail?" James suggested.

"Well…" said Remus doubtfully, with a reproachful look. "You like it, Peter?"

"I don't," interrupted Sirius. "It makes him sound like a pirate. I think Wormtail sounds good."

Peter nodded in agreement. "Wormtail," he repeated, thoughtfully. "I like it."

"So that's settled then," said James gleefully. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs… The Marauders."

"Hello, brother."

Standing behind Sirius was Regulus, with his usually sneer in place on his face.

"What do you want?" snapped Sirius. He avoided his family at all costs – he didn't want people to think that he was like them. After all, they had all been in Slytherin, and he was in Gryffindor.

"Mother sent an owl with a box of sweets this morning. Kreacher made them for me."

"And?"

"Well, that just shows that I am more important than you," said Regulus maliciously. "Mother and father love _me_, not you."

"Oh, now I'll have trouble sleeping tonight," said Sirius in a feigned hurt tone. "Mummy and daddy don't love me, our house-elf is an idiot, and my brother is a prat. Now can you go away so me and my friends can continue planning on smuggling Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No Heat Fireworks into your underpants?"

Regulus only scowled and stalked away toward the Slytherin table.

"What was that all about?" said Peter in a hushed tone.

Sirius waved it aside with his hand as though it were nothing important. "He just likes to remind me that I'm the black sheep of the family." The statement really meant that Sirius was the only _decent_ person in his family.

He checked his watch, as he seemed to be doing a lot lately. "I have – er – homework to catch up on later, so I won't be in the common room tonight…"

"We finished our homework yesterday," said James. "Remember?"

Sirius ran a hand through his neat brown hair to keep it from flopping into his large soulful eyes. "Yeah, but – er – I think I messed up my star chart so I'm going to head off to the library. But anyways, about next moon…"

They were just about to start discussing further plans for the next week, when they heard someone approaching.

It was Remus who first looked up. "Ah, good morning Professor Dumbledore, Mr. Filch."

"Could you be so kind as to let us steal away Mr. Potter and Mr. Black for a moment please?" asked Dumbledore with a smile.

"Sure thing, Professor," said James, smiling, though he gave a rather nasty look to Filch. "What can we do you for?"

Dumbledore led them to a remote corner in the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall joined them, before speaking. He held out a note of parchment.

"Does this belong to either of you gentlemen?"

James met Sirius's eye. It was the note they'd left on Filch's office door after vandalizing it. They knew they were in trouble, even without the stern look McGonagall was giving them, and Filch's dagger eyes and evil smirk. Dumbledore, however, remained benign.

"Yes," Sirius admitted slowly.

It looked as though McGonagall was going to pop. "How could you boys do such a thing!" she burst. "Have I taught you nothing? Have you no respect for the caretaker of this school?"

Dumbledore cut in. "Now, now, Minerva –"

"You broke into my office!" barked Filch. "I know you did –"

Dumbledore held up his hand to silence him. "Now, Argus, no need to shout. And as there is no evidence of that yet, you cannot be sure that they stood one foot past your office door. Let us focus on the issue at hand."

He turned to James and Sirius, a trace of a smile about his lips, his blue eyes searching them intently.

McGonagall exhaled deeply. "Boys, I think that I will have to take ten points –"

"Minerva, there is no need for that," said Professor Dumbledore kindly. "From where I'm standing, it was just a – an _overly enthusiastic_ prank, but it hasn't done anyone any harm. And I see no reason to punish them."

"But – b-but –" spluttered Filch. "My door!"

"It was just a door, Argus," reminded Dumbledore. "And it has already been cleared, I presume? It is… shall we say, water under the bridge?" He smiled at the four of them. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I will go have a cup of tea with Professor Sprout, as promised. Good day to you all."

Despite the glares McGonagall and Filch gave them, James and Sirius grinned at each other.

"I told you!" hissed James, as him and Sirius joined Remus and Peter again. "I told you we wouldn't get into trouble."

"Yeah, but it was that close," Sirius retorted, putting his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

Remus looked at them, torn between anxiety and reprimand. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm not even going ask what you guys did this time…"

"So are we all psyched for next week?" James asked.

"All psyched for what, exactly?"

They turned around to find Snape standing behind them.

Sirius sighed. "Can't we ever have a moment, uninterrupted?"

"Mind your own business," said James. "Go bother your freaky little friends." He gestured toward a group of Slytherins that were way into the dark arts, like Snape.

"Bugger off," said Snape quietly.

"In case you didn't notice, this is the _Gryffindor_ table, Snivellus," James pointed out. "We didn't as you to come here. In fact, we'd prefer that you leave."

"I'll get you one day, Potter," seethed Snape. "So hard, your children will feel it; all of you. Yeah, you too Pettigrew. I'll have you begging me on your knees to spare you… But I won't."

Sirius glanced at his watch in an exaggerated fashion. "And we're still waiting for that day, but we're waiting in vein. Oh, look, there's your boyfriend," he added, pointing to a Hufflepuff second-year with a pale face and straw-coloured hair, as he passed by. "I've seen the two of you awfully cosy together lately…"

Snape flushed. "I only help him with his Potions homework," he retorted. "Barty Crouch is nothing to me but a friend, as are you and Potter. At least, as far as I know…"

Remus and Peter jumped up at the exact same time to hold James back from advancing on Snape. Sirius looked a lot angrier than James, but was better at controlling his emotions, and just clenched his fist so tightly his bitten nails dug into his palm.

"You watch your mouth, Snivellus," growled James.

"As soon as you brush yours," he replied, waving a taunting hand in his face, knowing that James was properly secured, and couldn't attack him.

With a sinister laugh, Snape glided away, leaving James glaring at his back, his eyes full of hatred. Okay, so Snape had gotten one on James… No matter. James would make sure that he paid dearly for his moment of fun.

Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6: Honeydukes**

James never got a chance to think up a revenge plan on Snape, or even do his Weekly Filch Operation with Sirius, because there were more pressing things at hand. Besides carefully planning their nightly excursion, they had extra homework.

On Tuesday night during dinner, James, Sirius and Peter watched as Remus left the Great Hall to meet Madame Pomfrey. Just after, they went as fast as they could without looking suspicious, to their dormitory to grab the Invisibility Cloak. As they went back in the common room they spotted Remus being led by Madame Pomfrey and the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, toward the Whomping Willow, through the window. They crept through the portrait hole, threw the cloak over themselves, and exited the school.

The sound of rustling leaves subsided once they'd stopped walking; they didn't want Madame Pomfrey or Hagrid to hear them on their way back to Hogwarts.

Once they'd finally reached the Willow, it seemed as though Peter had forgotten what to do. He stood stock-still, his face pale, his eyes wide in fright.

With a prod from Sirius, he seemed to come back to his senses. "It's your time to shine," James muttered to Peter from under the cloak, as they stayed out of branch-reach from the wildly whipping tree.

Peter gulped. Closing his eyes for a long time, they waited for what seemed like forever until he shrunk – he'd turned into a rat.

"Yes!" whispered Sirius.

As the smallest, Peter was enabled to touch the knot on the base of the tree's trunk that froze it and opened the trapdoor. Breathlessly, James and Sirius climbed in after him, leaving the Cloak on the level ground. As the trapdoor closed, they heard the Willow's limbs begin to thrash about again.

This was the hard bit. They were now in a tunnel, and as they were already squatting, it was going to be hard for Sirius and James to transform.

Concentrating with every ounce of power he possessed (and knowing that what they were doing could probably land them in Azkaban if they were caught) James turned into a silvery-white stag, though still at a crouch.

Beside him, Sirius transformed into a huge, shaggy black dog.

Remus's howling couldn't be heard yet, and they had begun to get nervous.

"What d'you reckon's happened?" barked Sirius. When they were transformed, only other Animagi (or animals that could understand English, which isn't very probable) could understand them.

"Dunno," replied James apprehensively, as they neared the room Remus was kept.

"Hey!" Peter suddenly exclaimed from around their feet.

His sudden cry soon became evident of its meaning. Remus was, in fact, in the room as usual, but he wasn't a werewolf; the moon must've not come out yet.

"Hey!" said Remus, surprised that his friends had come so early, not aware that just barely a millisecond before, Peter had said the same thing. He came closer to them, amazed. He'd never seen them as animals when he was human before. He looked at them, impressed, as he patted Sirius's head.

"You guys," said Remus, "do you have any idea how –" But what he was about to say, they never knew, because at that very moment, Remus doubled over, panting.

James, Sirius and Peter backed away uncertainly.

Remus looked up, his hand clutched to his stomach. His eyes turned to slits and darkened to black and the white turned yellow. His nose protruded into a long, wolf snout and his teeth grew fangs. Hair sprouted out of his face, thick, gritty and brown, then rippled across his body. He fell over on all fours, not able to stand on his two hind paws, and his shoes and socks slipped off. He tore his robes off and left them on the floor in a tangled heap.

"Remus?" said James tentatively.

"James," replied Remus, with what was unmistakably a wolfish grin. "This is really weird," he continued. "We can understand each other, and I'm _me_, controlling myself."

"Yes, well, if you get any sudden urges to eat someone, hold it, please," said Sirius. "I don't want to be proven wrong about what I said about leaving the shack, especially by you."

"Well," said James, "let's be off, then, shall we?"

They went back up through the tunnel, Moony tagging along behind them as Wormtail ran ahead to open the trapdoor.

"This is so weird," voiced Moony again. "You have no idea."

"We do," said Prongs. "But – oh shoot – you guys, it's only just past dinner, we'll have to wait until everyone's asleep. That's a downer."

Feeling put out, the four friends headed back down to the Shrieking Shack.

_If someone were to walk in right now_, thought James humorously, _it would look really odd_.

For all four of them were sitting in a circle on the couches, as though they were getting ready to play a game of cards. Furthermore, to see a werewolf, a stag, a dog and a rat together peacefully, was very uncommon.

They sat around speechlessly, waiting for the tiny light that drifted through the boarded up windows to completely extinguish.

Finally, Padfoot struck up a conversation. "So Prongs," he said with a devilishly handsome grin, "I heard that the night we had detention you and Lily went to the bathroom together…" He trailed off suggestively.

"We didn't _go_ together," said Prongs, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment. "We just… ended up – got – met – you know."

"Oh, I understand completely," said Padfoot sarcastically. "But I was talking to the fifth year Gryffindor girls – Lily, Clarissa, Maria, Tatiana and Lisette – "

"Wait," interrupted Prongs. "You talk to Lily? Since when?"

"So does Moony," said Padfoot defensively.

"Hey, leave me out of this," said Moony warningly.

"Since when do you talk to Lily, Padfoot?"

Even as a dog, it was evident that Padfoot looked very uncomfortable. "Since… well, I always have."

James got indignantly to his hooves. "And you never bothered to tell me?"

"Well, it's just regular conversation," said Sirius. "What am I supposed to do – notify you every time I say hello? Ever since I started dating Lisette – "

"You're dating Lisette?" chorused Prongs, Moony and Wormtail.

Though Prongs couldn't tell, he knew that at that point, Padfoot would've grinned. He felt strangely betrayed that Sirius wouldn't care to tell him that he'd been dating someone, especially since they told each other everything. But now that he thought about it, Padfoot _had_ be acting a bit odd at times, disappearing for one reason or another.

"Yeah," said Sirius, with the hint of a grin in his voice. "For a while now. We thought we'd keep it secret until we made it official, but… Sorry, guys."

The room steadily darkened as time wore on until one of the lamps suddenly sprung to life and illuminated the faces with an eerie glow.

When they were sure that everyone up at Hogwarts must be in bed, they went up through the trapdoor for a second time, but with just as much enthusiasm.

They crept through a secret entranceway they'd found in their first year, leading toward the Ravenclaw common room. Though instead, they turned to the right and sneaked against the wall, Moony between Padfoot and Prongs, with Wormtail in the lead to warn them first if someone was coming.

After exploring the first two floors (and finding some very interesting rooms and storage closets that were more than they seemed) the Marauders trooped up to the third. When they reached a room in the corridor on the right-hand side, they heard very distant footsteps.

Prongs noticed Moony's ears prick up at the sound, his nose sniffing for a scent. Realization dawned on him.

"Padfoot!" shouted Prongs, as Sirius was the closet to the door. Moony had made a move to leap out of the room, but Padfoot, catching on, was too quick. He blocked the doorway and leapt forward himself, kicking Moony over.

"Moony, watch it!" shouted Prongs, as Moony and Padfoot rolled across the floor. But it seemed as though Remus had lost all rational thought to his werewolf senses.

Prongs looked around wildly for help, and spotted Wormtail scurry up an old and dirty closet. _Coward_, he thought bitterly. But to his surprise, Wormtail crawled under an old cloak and pushed off a wooden stick that had been poking out from under it. It clattered to the floor at Prongs's hooves, and he realized that it was a long and very weather-beaten wand.

He looked up at the closet, to see Wormtail's whiskers pushing its way out from under the heavy material, and if he could have he would've grinned. "Thanks," he said.

But it was harder than it looked. With the absence of fingers, it was almost impossible to aim the wand at Moony and Padfoot's fighting bodies. They didn't stay still long enough for him to hit Moony with a stunner or something. Moony tore Padfoot's left ear to shreds with his fangs, then scratched his eye with his sharp claws.

In retaliation, Padfoot got back up and bashed Moony down, his paws catching Moony's chest. "Ease up, man!" Padfoot tried to yell as they crashed into an old vase.

Meanwhile, Prongs tried to steady the wand with his hoof holding it firmly to the floor. For a split second, the wand was pointed directly at Moony. In his excitement, Prongs completely lost his head; instead of saying 'stupefy', as he should've done, he yelled, "Dissendium!" But in the time it took for him to say the spell, Padfoot and Moony had already moved. The spell hit the stone statue behind them, of a hump-backed witch with one eye.

With a long, loud creak, the statue opened up to reveal a secret passage. Prongs stared in shock and Moony and Padfoot stopped fighting to look. Even Wormtail poked his nose out from under the cloak. The footsteps had died away – Prongs was surprised that no one had heard his friends fighting.

"You want to check it out?" asked Padfoot.

They all agreed, Wormtail going first down the little slide, then Prongs followed by Moony, with Padfoot bringing up the rear. They all landed with a soft _thwump_ before heading off down the opening.

The air was full of exhilaration and anticipation of what they might find at the end the trek.

The tunnel was very long, and only finally opened up after what seemed like an hour. Wormtail ran ahead to unlatch the trapdoor straight above their heads.

They pushed it open to a dim room above.

"Where are we?" wondered Prongs. One by one they each passed through the door, though with a bit of difficulty, because of size. They seemed to be in a storage room.

Cautiously and quietly, the four Marauders sneaked to the door on the other side of the room. It took quite a long time, but after a while, they finally managed to open it. What they saw shocked their skins off.

"We're in Hogsmeade!" exclaimed Peter unnecessarily; they were in Honeydukes, to be precise.

"Whoa," said Remus, regaining his mind again. They looked around at the mouth-watering sweets wishing that they could nick some, but they hadn't any pockets to hold anything.

They soon tore themselves away from the Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, chocolate frogs, Fizzing Whizzbees, coconut ice, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Pepper Imps, Sugar Quills, Ice Mice, Tooth-flossing Stringmints, and other delicious candy, and headed back through the secret passageway, feeling elated. Their journey had just begun and they were already coming across cool places.

The three of them walked Moony back to the Shrieking Shack, then left to turn back to human.

"We need to find a way to record the places we find," said Sirius, as they jogged across the grounds. "Like a map, to help future generations in breaking the rules. It looked as though that particular passage hadn't been opened in ages."

"True," agreed James. He looked up at the silver moon through the fabric of the Invisibility Cloak. "I can't believe we're doing this. I mean, who would've guessed what we've accomplished back when we started at Hogwarts? Like, somehow Dumbledore knew that we were going to give him a run for his money, but – it's just amazing."

Then James, Sirius and Peter went upstairs and to bed for a hard earned sleep.

Author's note: I know I haven't been around for a while, but R&R


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Hmm No reviews yet… that's a lil discouraging..

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**Chapter 7: Traitor in the Making**

As the weeks wore on, the weather changed horribly, and the ceiling in the Great Hall became gloomier and gloomier. Nobody could be seen outdoors because of the furiously biting winds, and most people seemed to just want to sit by the fire and play Exploding Snaps or do homework.

The Marauders couldn't wait until their next Moon Adventure, which would take place on Halloween night.

Between turning Filch's bat soup into real live bats (at dinner, which even Dumbledore found amusing) and replacing his ink with Vanishing Venom, James somehow fit in the ever-growing mounds of homework and Quidditch practices. Quidditch season was rolling around pretty quickly. The first match of the year, Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw (no surprises there, Hufflepuff would win, hands down) would take place two weeks before the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game, but Kidman was still working them as though the game were in an hour.

They could always see Snape lingering around trying to snatch tidbits of their conversation, hoping to catch them doing something illegal.

"Nosy git," muttered James, as they headed into Defence Against the Dark Arts. "Can't he just leave us alone?"

As usual, Sirius, Remus, Peter and James took seats the furthest away from Professor Turbone, at the very back, Sirius sitting right beside Lisette. She pushed her desk closer to his and linked her arm through his as they shared a brief kiss (if Mr. Bone had caught them, they wouldn't live to see the next day).

"Today, class, we will be learning something new," she said briskly, once everyone had taken their seats. "This unit has been taking far too long to teach, and I daresay that many of you will be able to keep up with the new lesson."

She strolled up and down the aisles leisurely, caressing her leather whip in her hands, not caring if it was only the end of October, and too early to start another unit. James could've sworn her piercing yellow eyes shot daggers at him for a split second, though he couldn't think what he'd done wrong this time.

"Legilimency," she stated, "is a dark art used by many-a-wizard to penetrate another's mind and emotions. It is used to plod through someone else's memories and thoughts and relive them. Dark wizards use Legilimency to learn about their opponents, see their weaknesses. The counter-attack of Legilimency is Occlumency. Occlumency is used to block one's mind from being able to be 'read', as muggles put it, and forces the attacker to relive his or her own memories and thoughts, disabling them from using Legilimency.

"I do hope you are all taking notes, you will be quizzed on this later…"

There was a long shuffle of parchment and ink, as everyone hastily sought out their supplies.

"Open your books up to page ninety-three, and begin copying down from the second paragraph," added Professor Turbone.

Seeing as the class had last read page fifty-seven, and most of the students had already flipped to that page, thinking of going to the next, an interesting wave of hands turning pages broke out across the classroom.

They took notes the whole lesson, and when the end-of-class signal rang, James was exceptionally glad. Barely two seconds later he grabbed his books and made for the door, knocking someone over along the way, but didn't even stop to apologize.

The whole class had been disturbing for him. Professor Turbone had been trying to catch his eye the whole time, and James suspected that she'd been trying to read his thoughts.

After climbing four sets of stairs, he finally managed to reach the Muggle Studies classroom, though panting at the effort. Professor Alderton, a tall and kindly man, sat at his desk, waiting for the rest of his class to arrive.

"Hello," James wheezed, plopping down into the nearest seat.

"Good afternoon, James," Alderton replied. "Having a nice day?"

"Very well, thanks," James lied. "You, sir?"

"Jolly good, it's a fine day –"

But just then, Sirius came bursting in, holding his side, and looking very exhausted. "What was that all about?" he asked James in amazement.

"What?" asked James, puzzled.

Sirius chuckled, and sat down in the seat next to James. "Oh, hello Professor," he added absentmindedly. "James, you idiot, you just knocked Lily over and kept on going like nothing happened."

"What?" James repeated, though this time, out of shock. "I can't believe it! I am so stupid!"

Sirius laughed again. "I don't think she knew it was you, though." He grinned. "In fact, I hardly realized it was you. If it wasn't for that piece of hair sticking out the back of your head –"

"It does not!" cried James indignantly, reaching up a hand to pat it down.

If only Lily took Muggle Studies, thought James. Then again, why would she need to? She was muggle-born. He wanted to apologize. After all, he hadn't talked to her since that one morning in the common room, not even during Quidditch.

Pretty quickly, the whole class filed in, and Professor Alderton began his lesson on why muggles have television.

"Television?" thought James an hour later, heading for dinner with his friends. "Where've I heard of that before?"

Then it hit him – rather hard. Corinne Anthrax had just bombarded into his stomach like a hurricane.

"Hi James!" she squealed.

"Hi Corinne," he replied, a little too enthusiastically, and sounding as though he were mimicking her. "Er – can you let go? – I can't breathe."

"Oh, sorry," she giggled, blushing, and backing away. James couldn't help thinking that she reminded him of an over-excited dog. Her blond hair was back in pigtails, tied with thin red bows to match her red blouse and brown bell-bottoms under her robes.

"You just came from Muggles Studies, didn't you?" asked Corinne, then she giggled. "I memorized your entire timetable."

James supposed that she thought he ought to be impressed, but it made him wonder if she was always this creepy.

"Er – All right…?" he said uncertainly.

Sirius, Remus and Peter sniggered behind his back.

"Wanna play a game of chess?" asked Corinne.

"Sorry – no," said James. "I have to – I was just about to – go to the library," he lied.

"Oh, I'll come with," she insisted. "I ate dinner already, maybe I can keep you company."

"On second thought, maybe I'll hold that idea. I'd rather eat."

"Excellent," said Corinne. "I can watch you."

James looked at his friends desperately for help – the girl was turning into a leech. To his annoyance, they stood there brainlessly gawping at him.

"Fine," he said finally.

As he sat down to his dinner, he felt like jumping in the lake. But then again, Corinne would probably dive in right after him.

•

Halloween had to have been the greatest night of the year for the Marauders. They had played a spectacular prank involving a very angry Filch and a serenading Snape (don't even ask), but weren't there to witness it unfold as they had gone to keep Remus company once again in the Shrieking Shack. They had found seven more secret passageways, five more of which led straight into Hogsmeade.

However, the effects of the love potion wore off overnight, and a ranting Snape caught up with them the next morning.

"You did this!" screamed Snape quite hysterically.

"What?" asked James innocently, his tired eyes drooping.

"This!" Snape held out his arm and pulled up his sleeve, to reveal the words SEVERUS AND ARGUS FOREVER drawn inside a large heart. "And it won't come off!"

Sirius's eyes widened and he burst out laughing. They had no idea that their prank would turn out so good. "He's too old for you, man," he said between guffaws.

Snape threw down his arm angrily. He glared at James and Sirius, his black eyes blazing through his greasy curtain of hair. "I'll get you for this," he muttered. "I will."

"Not before we get you first – not that you haven't already been got better than you could ever achieve on anyone else," promised James. "And besides, I didn't write that on your arm, you did it yourself."

As Snape stalked away, Remus glanced after him wearily. He ran his hand through his sand-coloured hair and sighed. "You guys…" he warned. "You don't want to go around getting into sticky situations with Snape. You know his lot – who knows what he might get them to do to you? Avery, Nott, Macnair – they're all mad, I tell you."

James punched Remus playfully on the arm. "You worry too much, Moony," he said, using Remus's new nickname. "I think I can handle the little snivelling Snivellus."

•

The entire school was in an uproar over the excitement of the first Quidditch match of the year. As Quidditch was one of the few things Hufflepuff house were actually _good_ at, most of Gryffindor were sporting yellow and black rosettes. Slytherin were rooting for Ravenclaw, as they all thought Hufflepuff were a bunch of dunderheads. The Marauders all felt sorry for Remus, because he had to stay in the hospital wing during the match – though he hadn't been scratching or biting himself as before, one of the suits of armour had landed on him when they'd gone into the school two nights before and it looked as though he had. He had been feeling a bit off-colour the day before and decided to check in with Madam Pomfrey, much to the dismay of his Quidditch-loving friends. James, Sirius and Peter waved him farewell and headed down to the Great Hall.

Before anyone was allowed to go the pitch though, Dumbledore stood up to make a brief announcement.

"I don't wish to bore you all, so I am going to make to the point," started Professor Dumbledore. "I am sure you are all aware of certain things you are not allowed to do here at the school; such as using magic between the halls, staying out after hours, etcetera, etcetera. And I am sure you are all aware of the dangers of mixing untaught potions and feeding them to another student, especially when that student is not notified that they are being drugged."

At these words, James found that Dumbledore was looking directly at him.

"Therefore, I must ban all love potions and other mind-altering substances from being brewed within these walls, or tested on another student," he added plainly, just as James was thinking that he might make the potions at home and bring them to school. "That is all."

He sat down, and the entire student body stood up, murmuring about what could have brought on the little speech, then remembering Snape's little love song to Filch.

James looked round at the Slytherin table and caught Snape's glare. He narrowed his eyes, then broke the tension by looking away and following his friends to the stands.

Both sides flew out onto the pitch, dressed in their Quidditch robes and ready to go. Madame Hooch, flying instructor, released the balls. Her shrill whistle pierced through the air.

"And they're off!" shouted Will Dunn, the commentator. "Daniels of Hufflepuff makes a quick grab for the Quaffle, a newcomer, and we're expecting great things from him – oh no, Madison blocked his shot, nice save though… Louis with the Quaffle – oh that was close – lucky Bagman was there to knock the Bludger the other way. Interception! Very nice catch, Stevens, and she's off with the Quaffle speeding down the pitch… She's riding a Cannon Ball, top-of-the-range, superb broom… And she scores! Ravenclaw is in the lead with ten points to nothing!"

The whole Ravenclaw side erupted with cheers. James booed good-naturedly.

"Man, that was a nice shot!" cried Sirius, over the noise.

"I'm rooting for Ravenclaw," announced Peter suddenly, standing up.

James yanked him back down. "Just because Ravenclaw are winning _at the moment_ doesn't mean you should betray Hufflepuff! Just wait, in the end Hufflepuff will win."

James turned out to be right. Hufflepuff came back and beat Ravenclaw 190-20, in just forty minutes.

The stands erupted with half the stadium cheering, the other half booing.

James noticed Peter jumping up and down in excitement. "Told you, didn't I?" he yelled, over the tumultuous chanting of, "Go, go Hufflepuff! Go, go Hufflepuff!"

---

Author's note: I would really appreciate some feedback


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8: Quidditch**

James had been hoping to find Lily during the Quidditch match to get a chance to finally talk to her, but she had been nowhere in the crowds. All week she seemed to be avoiding him, and ignored him during every lesson, her friends always crowding around her so that he wouldn't get a chance to approach her. She stayed in the library mostly, poring over books.

On Saturday, all the third years and above were getting ready for the first Hogsmeade weekend. James and Sirius were planning on paying Zonko's Joke Shop a visit, to refill their stock of fake wands, fake treats, silly snakes and other pointless things. Afterwards, Sirius was going to go off with Lisette. Remus was planning on going to Dervish and Bangs, and meanwhile Peter just wanted to loosen up at the Three Broomsticks with a warm Butterbeer.

As they passed the gates into Hogsmeade, James spotted Lily a few feet away, clutching a gold scarf around her neck.

"I'll catch you up, all right?" he told his friends, making his way through all the students and catching Lily off her guard as he showed up behind her. He tapped her on her shoulder and she whipped around.

"Potter!" she said in surprise. "What do you want?"

"Hey Evans," James said, a grin spreading across his handsome face. "Long time, no talk."

"So why don't we go for a world record?" snapped Lily, quickening her pace.

"Ouch," said James, putting his hand to his heart. "That hurt. But it won't keep me away from you, Lily. How could I stay away?"

Lily stopped and turned around. "Maybe a good Bat-Bogey Hex will do the trick. Come on, Potter, if you think that was romantic then you're losing your already gritty touch."

"Come on," said James seriously. "Lily – "

She turned around and continued to speed walk down the street. "Push off, Potter!" she yelled over her shoulder. "I would think you'd get the hint after the umpteenth time!"

Defeated, James stopped following her, his arms at his side. "But _why_ do you hate me, Lily?" he said despairingly, seemingly to himself, as people walked around him. It wasn't fair that the one girl he wanted, he couldn't have.

Feeling down, he went to Zonko's and found his friends there, huddled around something. Sirius turned slightly to face James, and grinned. "Hey Potter – catch!"

Instinctively, James threw out his hand and caught whatever it was Sirius threw at him. Looking down, he saw that it was a model of a Snitch.

"Oh cool!" he said, his spirits lifting. "This is – Errgh!"

The Snitch exploded in his hand, erupting a foul-smelling liquid all over them. "Erlack," said James, with a disgusted look on his face.

Sirius, Remus and Peter burst out laughing.

"That's disgusting!" continued James, trying to wipe the goo onto the handkerchief Remus passed him. "That was _so_ not funny, guys. How much are they?"

"Six Sickles each," said Sirius. "Come on, they're almost sold out…"

Once James had bought a bagful of Zonko's gags they headed off once again around the village. They finally arrived at Dervish and Bangs, the shop to go to for the odd magical instrument.

Remus loved looking at all the defence instruments, though his friends weren't as enthusiastic as he to examine Sneakoscopes and other junk.

James looked around mindlessly, running his hand through everything and not really paying attention. Suddenly he spotted something that looked a bit interesting.

It was a map – a map of Hogwarts. It had all the floors, and even the Forbidden Forest. He showed it to Sirius.

"So what?" said Sirius.

"Remember what you were saying before about leaving a legacy?" replied James excitedly. "This could be it! Of course, we'd have to spruce it up a bit…"

Looking at the map, James had realized that it didn't have any of the secret passageways they'd discovered through the years, and it was just a plain old map.

James paid two Galleons for the old bit of parchment and they were on their way to the Three Broomsticks for lunch.

They found a table very close to the front counter, where young Madame Rosmerta was busy cleaning glasses and goblets. She smiled at James as he entered and James grinned back. Madame Rosmerta was very pretty and very young – only eighteen years old – and her parents owned the pub. Speaking of the pub, it was already decorated in lovely decorations of red, green and gold, with a wreath of holly on the front door.

"Hey Sirius," said James suddenly, "what are you doing this Christmas?"

Sirius shrugged. "I dunno," he said heavily. "But I don't fancy returning back to _that_ place."

They all knew he was talking about his home. His entire family thought he was a disgrace to the name of Black and always wanted him to be more like Regulus and his cousins, Narcissa and Bellatrix. The only member of his family that Sirius wasn't ashamed of himself was Narcissa and Bellatrix's older sister, Andromeda. Any wizard in their family that was half as decent as Sirius was considered a disgrace, to them. They didn't approve of him befriending Remus and Peter, because Remus was a werewolf (they didn't know that, but Remus's parents weren't exactly the richest pureblood family) and Peter's family weren't very well… respected. Peter didn't come from a family of powerful wizards and his father worked at a wizard bakery, not the most reputable of jobs.

The only friend they slightly approved of was James, and to them, even he was a black sheep. His family was very well thought of, and had long since been friends with the Blacks – yet, Sirius and James had turned out… not quite right, according to them. They preferred Sirius to befriend Slytherins, and Sirius couldn't even _stand_ them.

"Why don't you come to my place?" offered James. "My mum won't tell me where we're going yet, but you can bet it'll be someplace boring."

"Oh, yippee," said Sirius sarcastically. "That sounds like so much fun."

Peter snorted into his Butterbeer.

"Well, would you rather come on my family trip, or have a bloody merry Christmas with yours?"

It didn't take Sirius long to think about it; as long as he got to spend Christmas with a person he could actually stand, he'd choose that over his cousins any day.

"Yeah," said Sirius, with a slow grin. "That'd be great."

"I'd invite you guys," said James to Remus and Peter, "but you guys _like_ your families, and I'm sure they'd want you to stay. Sirius, on the other hand…" He trailed off, not wanting to make Sirius feel any worse, but he got the full meaning. Sirius's family wouldn't care if he were gone. In fact, they'd love it if he never came back, but the thought of their reputation kept him under their roof.

"Cool," said Sirius. "At least I won't have to put up with Kreacher 'till the summer holidays."

"Who's Kreacher?" asked Peter.

"Our House Elf, remember?" snapped Sirius, as though Peter were stupid. "All he ever does is mope around the house muttering about what a disgrace I am to the family, and how my mother should disown me."

Remus gasped. "That's horrible!"

"Yeah, I know," said Sirius gloomily.

"I wish we had a House Elf," mumbled Peter.

"You can take Kreacher," offered Sirius with a forced laugh. "Come on, this is getting depressing. Let's get out of here."

James hastily slammed a few Galleons on the table and after waving goodbye to Madame Rosmerta, the four boys went back out into the sunlit street.

"Brr," said Sirius. "It's getting colder so fast."

No sooner had these words left his mouth than James felt something cold and wet touch his nose. Confused, he looked up – little white flecks were slowly but surely falling from the sky.

"It's snowing!" he exclaimed, holding out his hand, and thoroughly wishing he'd thought to wear his cloak. He remembered seeing Lily with her scarf and gloves, and smiled to himself. Good ol' Lily – always thinking ahead.

Sirius checked his watch.

"All right – I'm off to meet Liz now," he said. Then he added with a lopsided grin, "We're heading back to the school, she wants to meet me in our dormitory… So don't come up there unless you want to see some pretty graphic things – I'd rather you didn't."

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and left them, and James, Peter and Remus all laughed.

"Let's go back to the school," suggested Remus after a few minutes of walking and freezing. They all agreed.

Turning the corner, they spotted a hushed group up near the Shrieking Shack. As always, it was boarded up with no way in.

James approached the group, his friends trailing behind him. It seemed as though they were crowded around one person, who was telling a story.

"… Every month he comes here," came a rasping voice. "He's particularly vicious – all night ripping sounds can be heard from inside… But recently, he's had visitors."

The crowd gasped.

James pushed his way in, to find an old man in front of the hill the Shrieking Shack was built on. He was leaning on his cane, using gestures for emphasis.

"I came up here just last week," said the wizard confidentially, sounding very important, "and you know what I heard? No, not ripping or howling or shrieking. I'm not sure exactly what it was; all I know was that there was more than one ghoul in there. And you know, nobody really knows how this house was put up, or why it's already so… _used_. It came out of nowhere about five years ago, and once a month, the ghoul comes back to haunt it… Who knows, it may even be a brutal poltergeist…"

Remus and Peter, who had also heard this, looked at James in shock. So they knew someone was in there every month. But at least they didn't know it was a werewolf.

"Come on," muttered James, and they slipped back out of the crowd.

•

"Does everybody remember our team strategy?" said Eric Kidman frantically. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days – he had never wanted to win more in his life, and wouldn't stop reminding the team that it was his last year to be the best once again.

The match against Slytherin was about to start any minute, and James held onto his Cannon Ball very tightly, silently hoping to win as well.

"We can do it, Eric," Katrina Mason said confidently. "We haven't lost a single match yet…"

"Don't be too sure," warned Eric. "There's a first time for everything. Come on." He led his team to the edge of the pitch and they all mounted their brooms.

The Slytherin team, clad in green and silver robes, opposed them, staring at them menacingly, but the Gryffindor side remained unflinching. Madame Hooch put her whistle to her mouth and threw the Quaffle in the air. Lily, Michael and Celestina got ready to grab for it, and Hooch blew the whistle, signalling the start of the game.

Even though it was snowing like mad and twice as cold, the strategy went as planned. Michael was first to get the Quaffle and zoomed down the pitch to Celestina. The two Slytherin Beaters brought their clubs ready to attack and she slipped the Quaffle under her; Lily caught it and scored into the left hoop, while Narcissa Black was still on the other end, showing off to the Slytherins in the stands. Sirius and Eric were doing a pretty great job of handling the Bludgers, except for one point when a Bludger came close to knocking James's head off – dangerously close.

"Watch it, Potter!" called Bellatrix gleefully, hovering twenty feet above him and still searching for the Snitch. "Those Bludgers can really hurt – especially when they connect with hard heads."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?" James called back. "But of course, the way you always bump into walls and bang your head, I'd be surprised if you even remembered."

Bellatrix's face reddened slightly. She _was_ a bit accident-prone.

Without giving her time to retort, James dived off. Some people thought that he had found the Snitch and were standing up to watch, but to their disappointment, he came back up empty-handed.

His face whipped, and his hair even more so, James strained his eyes against the white snow trying to decipher the different shapes around him – there were people, lots of people, and broomsticks and poles; but no Snitch. He tried to look for some hint of gold – anything – all the while trying to make sure that Bellatrix hadn't found the Snitch first. Meanwhile, Gryffindor pulled ahead, sixty points to fifty.

James could feel the bottom of his robes soaking wet and could only hear blurred sounds of Will Dunn's commentary. His eyes were hurting from straining them too much through the thickening snow. He could hear a chant rising up from a group of Slytherin girls: "If Bellatrix can catch the Snitch, you know that she's the greatest witch; Potter better give up now, the weak, pathetic man – If Bellatrix can't catch the Snitch it's clear that no one can!"

He blocked out the Slytherins taunting as the boys joined in, and could see Snape's triumphant face in the stands.

"_If Bellatrix can catch the Snitch you know that she's the greatest witch –_"

His anger boiled up inside him, freezing his insides as well as his body. _I'd like to see you try to play Quidditch!_ he thought ferociously, giving Snape a quick glare.

"_Potter better give up now, the weak, pathetic man –_"

_There_. He saw it. Right under the stands by Snape, there was the Snitch hiding peacefully. Turning his broom right around, he lunged down to the stands, praying that Bellatrix hadn't spotted him. Snape, thinking that James was attacking him, quickly drew out his wand and pointed it at James's fast approaching figure.

The Slytherins continued their song, completely oblivious to James and Snape. "_If Bellatrix can't catch the Snitch it's clear that no one can! _"

"Impedimenta!" yelled Snape. "Stupefy!" But James easily wove around his jinxes and curses, outstretched his hand, and felt his fingers tightly close around the Snitch.

He rose back up, giving Snape a superior grin, the Snitch raised high in his fist.

Eric signalled to the rest of the team and they touched down to the ground. There was a moment's confusion in the stands, when finally, three quarters of the stands erupted into cheers.

"We won! We won!" screamed Lily, Katrina and Celestina, holding each other and jumping up and down.

"Gryffindor wins – two-hundred and ten to fifty!" Will Dunn yelled into the megaphone.

Grabbing his broom, James went over to the Slytherin podium to brag, when Sirius, Remus and Peter caught up with him. Snape was looking sour faced, as he sulked in the stands.

"You really ought to work on that aim of yours, Snivelly," said James cheerfully. "It was a little off today."

"Sod off, Potter," seethed Snape.

"Not so smug now, are you?" said James coldly. "I reckon you feel pretty dumb now, don't you?"

Snape glared at them. "If feeling dumb means that I feel like snapping that little broom of yours in half, then yes."

James laughed hollowly. "_Little_ broom?" he said in disbelief. "If you haven't noticed, Snivellus, this," he held up his broom, "is a Cannon Ball. What are you riding? Oh yes, that's it, a _Silver Arrow_. My Grandfather had one of those when he was a child."

Always feeling as though he ought to have the last word, James stalked off, grinning brilliantly, and leaving Snape to stare after him teary-eyed.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: I'm sorry for the delay, but here is the next chapter.

---

**Chapter 9: Hogsmeade and Rumours**

---

_Dear James,_

_The holidays are fast approaching, and your father and I think it is an appropriate time to let you in on our little secret. We're going to visit Egypt! We've got the tour all planned out, honey, I know you must be very excited._

_Of course Sirius can come along, and if I do say so myself, I plan better holidays than _his_ mother (though bless her, she does make magnificent treacle tarts)._

_We shall be expecting your arrival on the 22 December._

_Mum_

Personally, James didn't think Egypt was going to be as fun as his mother was making it out to be, but he showed Sirius the letter as soon as he got it.

"Well – All right," said Sirius, as they entered the Care Of Magical Creatures classroom after lunch. "Egypt could be fun – I've never been. Have you?"

"No," replied James, as they sat down.

"You're going to Egypt?" asked Remus, apparently interested.

James nodded.

"Oh, cool," he said. "You'll want to check out King Tut's tomb – it's amazing. You get taken on a tour and everything, and there's all these gruesome curses and bodies of muggles who tried to get past. And you'll want to meet the Sphinx, she – "

"When did you go to Egypt?" asked James.

"A few summers ago," said Remus.

Their conversation was cut short as Professor Kettleburn stood at the front of the class. To the class's dismay, they were still carrying on their lessons on Flobberworms, which had to be the dullest magical creature that has ever grazed the Earth.

"Today, we are only going to be feeding the Flobberworms, class," said the Professor to a loud chorus of groans. "Partner up and pick a box."

Sirius immediately went to partner up with Lisette Perkinson and Lily Evans with Tatiana Thomson. Because Clarissa was away, that left Maria Shorey on her own. She looked over at James and smiled shyly.

James looked back to Peter and Remus. "Hey, you two be partners, all right?" he said.

"You sure?" asked Remus.

"Yeah."

James walked over to Maria's desk. "You wanna be my partner?" he asked.

Her eyes widened as though she never thought he would come talk to her. "Er – yeah! I mean, sure."

The Flobberworm they were supposed to be feeding didn't look as though it needed any – it was twice the size of all the others – so James decided to strike up a conversation.

"So… what's new?"

"Nothing really," Maria replied, tucking a strand of her curly brown hair behind one ear. "Was that you that made Snape sing to Filch a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah," said James, feeling no need to give Sirius any credit when she was complimenting him.

She smiled. "That was way cool. You used a love potion, right?"

"Yeah. Too bad Dumbledore banned them."

"Why? Were you planning on using it again?"

James was a bit taken aback by this question. Why would he do the same prank twice? "No," he said, question marks written all over his face.

He felt as though the air around them was deafeningly quiet; he looked behind him. Lily and Tatiana were bent over their box, feeding their Flobberworm. Lily looked up, and for a split second, her electric green eyes connected with James's hazel ones, and sent currents down his spine. His stomach contracted in embarrassment that she'd caught him looking, and he turned back to face Maria, who was looking at him with her large brown eyes.

"Did you go to the last Hogsmeade weekend?" she asked James.

"Yeah," he replied, feeling like he ought to stop saying that.

"Oh… I didn't see you," said Maria. "Are you going to the next one?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going with anyone in particular?"

"Not this time," said James with a grin. He knew what was coming. "Unless you'd like to have my company, m'dear?"

She giggled at his formality. "Yeah," she said.

James grinned. He hadn't gone on a date in a long time… since May, actually. Chasing Lily took up all of his time and, much to their dismay, he usually didn't pay attention to other girls.

•

The 20th of December rolled round pretty quickly and James found himself in Hogsmeade alone with Maria, one of the prettiest girls in the school. Yet, why couldn't he stop thinking about Lily?

She took him to Madame Puddifoot's, a really chic pub filled with couples.

"So," she said after they'd ordered two cups of tea.

"So," said James. He'd lost interest in the date a long time ago.

"What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Going to Egypt," said James dully. "Sirius is coming with me too, it is going to be _so_ boring…"

Maria giggled. "Well I'm sure that you and Sirius will find something to do – the two of you together is _never_ boring in the least."

"Of course," laughed James. "Though we haven't played a lot of pranks this year because of our OWLs."

"What about the ones you play on Filch every week?"

"That's nothing," James brushed aside. "Not like the prank when me and Sirius magicked a poisonous snake in Pringle's Hippogriff sandwich and it bit him on the lip – he wouldn't come out of his office for days…" (Pringle was the previous caretaker)

As they talked about past pranks and jokes, James began to get more comfortable sitting there with another girl, but for some odd reason he felt guilty – like he was cheating on Lily – but he had never even dated her in his life. Sirius had for a while last year because James hadn't made it publicly known until the second Quidditch match of the season that he fancied Lily. That had caused some confrontation between the two friends because James wanted Sirius to break up with her and Sirius argued that he never knew James liked her and he did as well. In the end, Sirius broke up with her because he missed his best friend too much.

Sirius is really a great friend, thought James. I mean, how many guys would give up a girl like Lily for their best friend? Would I? Probably not.

Finally, after two hours of trying to keep up conversation, James and Maria headed out of Madame Puddifoot's.

As they walked down the packed and cobbled street, James could've sworn he saw Lily coming toward him and she was smiling. Upon closer inspection, it truly _was_ Lily, and she _was_ smiling straight at him. Maybe she was coming to apologize for all the years of rudeness, thought James.

"Oi!" he called waving his arm in the air. "Hello, Lily!"

He watched as Lily walked right past him, the smile still on her face, and heard her squeal from behind him, "Maria! What are you doing here by yourself?"

His ego feeling utterly bruised he turned around to see Maria's slightly reddened face. It couldn't have been redder than James's.

"I'm not by myself," said Maria, somewhat defensively.

Lily spotted a sixth year Ravenclaw behind Maria. "_Please_ tell me you're with Toby," she said almost pleadingly. Mari shook her head. "Are you here with Andrew? Colin?" Maria shook her head.

Lily looked sharply at James. "Don't tell me you're with _Potter_," she said scathingly.

"Well – yes," said Maria uncertainly.

Lily gave Maria a little smirk with a look that said You-Can-Do-Better-Than-James-Potter and told her, "See you," then walked on.

"Well – that was – that was very… let's head back to school now, shall we?" said Maria awkwardly.

Feeling deflated, James nodded sombrely and followed her back to the castle.

•

The next day (last day of term! Yay!) James spotted Lily in the Great Hall, apparently telling her friends a funny story. He stared at her, while messing up his hair as usual – almost like a reflex. He had supposed she might have been impressed at his Snitch-catching skills, but after congratulating everybody on the Quidditch team after the match but him, she promptly headed back to the library.

Just as he was about to walk over to her, James heard someone shrilly call his name – and so did half the hall.

"_James_!" came the piercing voice.

Shuddering, he looked to where the voice had come from – across the hall – to find Corinne frantically waving at him.

"James!" she called again, running toward him. Torn between annoyance and amusement, everyone went back to doing whatever holiday work they had been starting.

James tore his eyes away from Lily to speak with Corinne. "Uh, Corinne," he said uncertainly, stealing a half-glance at Lily, "I'm kind of busy now."

"Oh," she said, her face falling. "I just wanted to give you something. Happy Christmas." Timidly, she held up a tiny box.

James's face relaxed and he softened his tone. "That was really nice of you," he said genuinely, feeling guilty that he hadn't thought to buy her something.

"Open it," she said eagerly.

Aware that everyone in the room was staring, James opened the box to find a white gold ring with a sapphire gemstone. Engraved along the circumference were the letters J.P. and C.A.

"Er –" said James, taken aback. The eyes of the students in the Great Hall were now upon him, waiting for his reaction.

"And I was thinking maybe we could meet up this Christmas…" continued Corinne. "Maybe out to lunch or something."

A catcall was coming from the Slytherin table. James felt colour rise in his cheeks. Frozen to the spot, he just stared at the ring in his hand. They couldn't possibly think that he'd go out with a first year?

"All right," concluded Corinne happily, "it's a date."

As she walked away a sixth year Slytherin called, loud enough for everyone to hear, "All right, Potter! No one thought you would sink to that level, but I guess you were getting desperate because Evans wouldn't take you!"

James balled a fist around the ring in his hand and Corinne had stopped walking. He thought it was especially mean that the Slytherin had brought up Lily, causing her unnecessary embarrassment as well as his own.

"She's not my girlfriend," James said quietly, painfully aware that his voice seemed to echo around the room; no one seemed to be breathing.

"That's not the story I heard," the Slytherin boy said.

"What do you mean _heard_?" James shot back.

One girl at the Hufflepuff table piped up, "James, everyone knows Corinne is your girlfriend."

James's eyes widened in horror. "WHAT!"

"Yeah," the girl continued, "she said so herself."

Corinne looked at her shoes, her face turning beet red. James felt his temper rising fast, but he tried to hold it before he could let out a string of curses he could never take back. Thankfully, he bit his tongue.

"Is this true?" he said shortly, his hazel eyes burning holes in the top of her head.

Silently, Corinne nodded.

"I can't believe this!" cried James. "This is an all-time low! I'm sorry Corinne, I've tried to put up with you, but I can't, it's just too hard. How could you tell people I was your boyfriend when I can hardly stand you!"

Corinne gasped. Biting back a sob, she ran out of the Great Hall. It was deafeningly quiet for a few moments, until like a tidal wave, babble broke out across the room, everyone's heads together, no doubt gossiping about what they'd just witnessed.

James slumped down into a chair. He hadn't meant to get angry with her. But he couldn't think why she'd been spreading those lies. Could that have been why Lily was avoiding him? He thought about how hurt Corinne must've felt, being humiliated in front of most of the student body, and thought he should go apologize. But another part of him reasoned, _why should you apologize? She humiliated you first_.

Despairingly, James looked over at Lily. She was looking at him too, but with her eyes narrowed. _Now what_? thought James. He couldn't think what he could've done to make her mad this time. But upon reflection, he realized that for once, he didn't care.

---

Author's note: Reviews please


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: I'm sorry for the hiatus, but I've been really busy with schoolwork. Hopefully I still have some readers left.

**---**

**Chapter 10: Gone**

Once more, when James found himself looking for Lily, she could only be seen from a distance, surrounded by books in the library – even early the next morning. But this time, he approached her table quickly, before his nerve failed him. His feet shuffled forward, and the momentum of his walking made him crash right into the table and all her books toppled onto the floor.

She looked up in surprise and annoyance. "_Potter_!" she said, as though she could expect nothing better from him. She hurriedly tried to grab her books before he could, but she was too late – James had picked a couple of them up. He looked at the titles before handing them to her, doing a double take.

" _'Symptoms of Warped Fondness'_?" he read. " _'Counter Love Potions'_? What's this for?"

Lily blushed furiously. "Mind your own business," she snapped. "It's for my Divination class."

"Why would you need this for divination?"

"If you took the course you would know, but you don't, so why does it matter?" she retorted, not taking her eyes off the book she was currently reading. It lay open on the desk in front of her, and James could make out some of the little diagrams moving in squiggly lines.

"It – it doesn't," replied James, feeling his heart rate speed up as though he were in an exhilarating Quidditch match. He wanted her to look up so that he could see her eyes, but she continued to read as though he weren't there.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked finally.

"Do I have a reason to be mad at you?" countered Lily.

James knew this game. She wanted to see if he felt guilty about something she didn't even know about in the first place.

"Well…" said James, choosing his words carefully. "You seem to constantly avoid me."

"Haven't I always?" said Lily smoothly, finally looking him straight on. He changed his mind. He wanted her to look away; he couldn't stand the way her bright green eyes kept piercing him.

"Well – "

"Look, Potter, I don't dislike you any more than I always have, if that makes you feel any better. Now would you please go away?"

"Aren't you going home for Christmas?" said James, ignoring her.

Lily's eyes widened. "Oh no!" she gasped. "I'm going to be late for the train!"

James helped her put the library books back on the shelves, but she shoved her things into her bags in silence. He grabbed the last book, _'Enchanted'_, and was about to stuff it on a shelf when he noticed the front cover. It was a picture of a Love Potion. James stared at it, transfixed for a moment, then shook himself out of his reverie.

But anyway, Lily was right. If they didn't hurry, they were both going to miss the train. Maybe on the way, James figured he could talk her into being civil to him.

"Well," he called, as he emerged from the large bookcase, "that's the last – " He stopped dead. Lily had already gone.

•

"James? James!"

James snapped out of his reverie, and his hand slipped out from under his chin. "What?"

He soon realized what, when the deck of cards exploded and singed his eyebrows. He knew that Sirius, Remus and Peter must've been exasperated with him, but he didn't care. He was just not in the mood to play games. The Hogwarts Express moved steadily south as the sky grew darker.

"We almost there, yet?" mumbled James, staring out the window.

Sirius sighed. "Yeah. You know, you won't accomplish anything by brooding. That girl – Corinna, or whatever her name is – she'll get over it."

"Corrine. But _I_ won't," said James stubbornly. "That was the most embarrassing thing in my life. And she's really not that bad, I didn't mean to snap at her like that."

"Then apologize," said Sirius simply.

"I can't," replied James. "I just – can't."

When the train was almost at King's Cross the Marauders changed into jeans and t-shirts. They'd stayed in their own compartment the whole time, not bothering to look for anyone else. What was the point, James had said, when Snivellus wasn't on the train to pester and Lily wouldn't speak to him? When the trolley lady had come round, even more than usual, James bought five of everything. Finally, the train slowed to a stop.

The friends split up to find their parents.

"James, Sirius," James's mother welcomed as him and Sirius jumped off the train, giving both of them a kiss on each cheek. Mr. Potter wasn't there.

A few feet away James spotted Lily being greeted by her family. Her mother had red hair just like hers, and her father had brown hair. There was a girl beside them, who had to be her older sister, and she looked very unpleasant, as though she wished to be anywhere but there. She was horse-faced and bony, with ratty brown hair, and looked disdainfully down at Lily as she hugged their mum and dad. James remembered that Lily was the only witch in her family.

"Petunia, that's no way to greet your sister," Mrs. Evans reprimanded kindly.

"Hello Lily," said Petunia stonily, and with no emotion. Her mother pushed her toward her sister and they hugged stiffly. James cringed inwardly. Though he had no siblings, he couldn't imagine an older brother or sister acting that callously towards him.

Lily turned, and spotted James looking at her (he hadn't realized he was still staring). Her smile slipped off her face. "What?" she said coldly.

"N-nothing," James stammered, his face red as he turned away.

He heard her mum say, "Who's that Lily?"

"No one," she replied, and he felt his heart sink lower.

•

"Wake up! Rise and shine! No time to waste!"

Groggily, James sat up in his bed, haven been awaken from a wonderful dream where he and Lily were flying on the same broom around Hogwarts. His mother had conjured another bed into James's room so that Sirius wouldn't have to sleep in his usual room he stayed in, but they hadn't got to talk much until after lights out. His mum hadn't let them unpack the night before as they were leaving very early at daybreak by Floo Powder.

Not being a morning person, James scowled at the sound of his mother's shrill voice.

"Crazy bat," he muttered angrily as Sirius sat up sleepily, his normally tidy hair unkempt and tousled. James briefly wondered how Sirius managed to comb his hair flat from that jungle when his mother called them again, sounding very irritated.

"Mum!" James called back. "We're going to the loo! Don't get your wig in a bunch!"

Sirius gave James an appraising look.

"What?" said James, heading for the door.

Sirius grinned. "I wish I could talk to Mother like that."

"Don't worry, I don't usually," said James sheepishly. "But since you're here she won't say anything. As soon as me and mum are alone, on the other hand…"

Sirius strolled casually over to James's desk, where lay a stack of comic books. He rifled through them and snorted.

" 'Wally the Wizard'. You still _read_ these?" asked Sirius incredulously.

"They're my cousin's," James lied, quickly snatching the pile out of Sirius's hands, then leaning on the desk casually. In truth, he really loved the series. What could be more interesting than a full-grown half wizard who could hardly ever manage a proper incantation? The books always ended in catastrophe and that was what made it exciting!

Something drew Sirius's eye downward, and he suddenly laughed. He bent down; when he came back up, James felt the desk slip from under him and he almost toppled over.

"Hey – watch it!"

"Sorry mate," grinned Sirius.

James saw that his friend was currently holding the book that had been supporting the short leg of the desk to keep it from wobbling. It was a very thick and boring book. Apologetically, Sirius stooped back down to stuff the book back beneath the floating leg.

"_James!_"

"Mum, I said we'll be out when we're done, don't blow a gasket! Come on Padfoot, before my mother dies of a heart attack."

"Um, where exactly _is_ the lavatory again?"

James and Sirius had emerged in the long winding hallway, and as Sirius hadn't been in the Potter Manor in a while, he tended to forget where half the rooms in the upper levels were.

"Down the hall, take a right, and it's the fourth door on your left."

"Thanks, man."

James made a beeline for the guest bathroom, washing up as quickly as he could before he could be called down to breakfast once again.

Mrs. Potter bustled around the Parlour making sure everything was perfect and ready while Mr. Potter sat at the table with Sirius, reading a copy of the Daily Prophet and Darcy the House Elf prepared everybody breakfast. Soon, they were on their way.

As the guest, Sirius went first. He tossed a pinch of Floo Powder into the fire and it glowed bright green. Sirius stepped into the fireplace and was engulfed in flames.

"Osiris' Inn!" he said, then in a flash he was gone.

---

Author's note: Thank you for patiently waiting. If I get a few reviews today I will definitely add the next chapter tomorrow (the next chapter is longer, too)


	12. Chapter 12

Author's note: Thank you for the reviews. Osiris' Inn is where they're staying.

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**Chapter 11: Happy Bloody Christmas**

James knew that if he heard his mother's annoying voice once again, he would snap and wrap his hands around her wrinkly little neck, then –

"Jamsie, dear, kindly don't dawdle," his mother chided, as she hurried to keep up with the rest of the touring group.

James and Sirius were getting restless. They had been Egypt for a day now and nothing exciting had happened – what a lousy Christmas Eve. They were in King Tutankhamun's tomb, and it would've been exciting if the Tour Guide weren't a complete bore.

The Guide had a monotonous drone to rival Professor Binns's and swept them through each room of the underground cave as though in a hurry. Sirius and James longed to hang about a while longer and fiddle with the little trinkets in each room, yet Mrs. Potter's shrill, crisp voice always snapped them both back to reality.

A ten-year-old boy named Tom who seemed to think he was their best friend kept following them around as well. He had black hair, electric blue eyes and a smattering of freckles. His eyes were quite scary, really.

"James, look!" Tom exclaimed, as they passed a rotted skeleton. "Isn't that wicked cool James? James?"

Tom reminded him painfully of Corinne Anthrax.

"Yes, yes, wicked cool," he said, slightly annoyed.

"Oh look, James!" Tom continued. "It's the curse of the mummy, James, _look_!"

"Where is your mummy?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know, she said she would come back for me a few hours ago and she never did."

"I wonder why," muttered Sirius.

"Wow, James, a real live scarab!" said Tom, all excited again. "Back in America, where I live, I've never seen one of those. Have you James? James?"

"How does this kid know my name?" James muttered to Sirius, feeling as though he were going to die.

He grabbed Sirius and made him stand still in an attempt to lose Tom, but no such luck. As though he were glued to them, Tom hung back with them. The only thing James had managed to do was to get another chastising from his mother.

They soon entered the room where King Tut's sarcophagus lay, but barely had any time at all to examine it because the tour guide rushed the group to the other side of the room.

"Wow, James, did you see that?" squealed Tom eagerly, as they passed the royal mummy.

_No_, thought James sarcastically, _I'm walking around with my eyes shut. Moron_.

"Why isn't he bothering you?" James whispered to Sirius very quietly, as the group had to go single file through a thin passageway. "This is definitely not a happy bloody Christmas."

A particularly fat bloke with a large camera was having difficulty getting through and the Guide was busy trying to shove him in.

"Hahaha," Sirius was busy laughing at the poor man, who was turning purple-faced. Sirius wiped a tear from his eye. "Priceless."

"Shut up," James hissed. "Look, Padfoot, here's our chance. If we skive now, Mum'll never notice."

Sirius glanced over at the large group of travellers trying to push the fat man through, his large brown eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Yeah," he agreed, grinning.

"Hey Mum," said James loudly, in a much too cheerful tone. "You don't need to worry so much about me and Sirius."

"Oh really?" replied Mrs. Potter.

"Really. We've caught up, we're not tired anymore and we think we can pay attention now." _Even if the Tour Dude is boring_, thought James silently.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Oh, come on now," came Mr. Potter's lazy drawl. "They're fifteen Marissa, when are you going to lighten up about the boy?"

"I'm just so worried about him, Richard, what if him and Sirius get lost in one of those mazes? Then I'd have to explain to his mother – "

"I'll take the heat, okay?" Mr. Potter offered.

Mrs. Potter sighed, then turned to face her son. "All right. Just be careful, darling, I wouldn't want my precious to fall behind the group. But if you get lost and die – "

" – it'll be my fault," Mr. Potter interjected.

James and Sirius grinned.

As his parents went back to help charm the big man become a bit thinner to fit through the passage, James and Sirius sneaked off. Even Tom didn't notice.

They hid behind the large casket, as the group was finally herded out the other side.

Sirius and James quietly high-fived each other.

"Now," said James, "let's do some _real_ touring."

•

"Over here we have a skeleton of a muggle who touched the Scarab on this cursed sarcophagus. Yes, horrid thing to happen, that, isn't it, but we've got to keep on moving. Hmm, what's that? Oh those silly things? Yes, they're hieroglyphics, not much to see here… What, you find them utterly _fascinating_? Well, sorry, but we don't have time. I _know_ we still have an hour, but it's still morning and I don't want to miss Breakfast At Ra's."

As the Tour Guide bellyached, Mrs. Potter listened with rapt attentiveness. The group was now squashed together in a confined area, so that everyone had barely two inches to move. She was just about to look around and ask for her son and Sirius when she heard an excited voice from right behind her: "Wow James, isn't that amazing? Those symbols over there! James? Did you see that? James? Wasn't it wicked? Oh, look at that diamond! James…"

She sighed. There was no need to worry after all. Little did she know that Tom didn't realize he was talking to himself.

•

One hour and three miles later, James and Sirius found that they were in a confined room – there was no way out and they didn't remember how they got in.

"What do we do now, Prongs?" said Sirius.

James ran a hand through his untameable hair and heaved a huge sigh. "I dunno… wait. I remember reading something in Moony's Ancient Runes Library book he got for some extra reading – er… Padfoot, touch that gold Scarab Beetle on that mummy."

"Are you mad?"

"No, just do it," said James crossly.

"Don't those things bring curses?"

"Just some of them… okay, most of them… er – Maybe all of them."

"I'm not touching it!" said Sirius stubbornly.

"Why not?"

"I don't need a third arm growing out of my forehead, thank you, two out of my shoulders is just fine."

"Don't be a wuss."

"I'm not touching it."

"Just do it. It's not a curse Scarab, I'm sure of it."

"How sure?"

"Er… twenty-five percent."

"Why don't you do it?" challenged Sirius.

"If I do it will you give me five Galleons?" asked James hopefully.

"Try five sickles."

"Five Galleons."

"One Galleon."

"Five Galleons."

"Three Galleons."

"Five Galleons."

"Four Galleons."

"Deal."

With a deep breath, James walked toward the mummy with his arm outstretched. (Weren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave?) Before he could lose his nerve, he quickly pushed the Scarab and then jumped back.

The beetle's eyes glowed red for a moment, and then the whole cave began to shake as the rocks started falling from the ceiling.

"Good one, James," said Sirius very sarcastically. A large boulder came an inch from turning Sirius into a pancake. "Mummy!"

"Blimey!" cried James. "Oh shit, I never pictured myself dying like this before – I always thought I would die standing, a hero, then maybe _that_ might impress Lily…"

Just when the friends began to fear they were going to be buried alive, a wall of the cave slid open, exactly as James had first hoped.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, as him and Sirius made a beeline for the new opening.

As the dust cleared up, they stopped dead in their tracks. Blocking their way to freedom was a very large golden Sphinx.

---

Author's note: You know the drill. I would really appreciate your comments.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: Two chapters in a row, so please read and review.

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**Chapter 12: Riddles to Riddle Your Mind**

"Er – Excuse me, you are blocking the door," said Sirius foolishly.

The Sphinx just blinked at him with her large eyes and smiled.

"Excuse me," said Sirius a little more firmly. "Will you please _move_?"

"Sirius, you idiot," said James scathingly, "she's a sphinx. She'll only let us pass if we answer a riddle. Right?" He turned to the Sphinx. She nodded politely.

"Answer correctly," she said, "I let you pass. Answer incorrectly… I attack. Do no answer and I let you walk away unscathed."

James looked at Sirius and gulped.

The Sphinx said, "I will move aside and let you free if you answer these riddles three:

"_A Woman has seven children_

_From twelve years to three_

_Half of them are boys_

_How can this be_?"

James looked at Sirius again. The look on Sirius's face must've mirrored his own – neither of them had any idea. James asked the Sphinx to repeat the riddle and she did.

"Seven kids…" James muttered. "Half of seven is three and a half. Maybe one of her children didn't have any legs? – that's not my answer, by the way, I'm just pondering."

"Somehow I doubt it," replied Sirius.

James kicked a loose rock on the ground. "Man, what do we do now?"

"You wanna walk this one?"

"No," said James firmly. "My mom is going to go ballistic over this if we don't find her soon. Besides, there's no way out besides past this thing. Remember that huge book of riddles Remus got me last Christmas that I promised to read if he left me alone for a week?"

"Yeah," said Sirius, brightening up. "Where is it now?"

James sighed heavily. "It's holding up the desk in my bedroom."

"Did you read it?"

"I was getting around to it."

"How far?"

James thought for a moment. " 'Riddles to Riddle Your Mind.' That was the front cover. That's as far as I read."

"Then what use is it to us now?" asked Sirius furiously.

"None," said James. He turned to the Sphinx. "Can you repeat the riddle again, please?"

"Hmm," thought Sirius. "How can a woman have half sons and half daughters if she has seven children?"

Suddenly brilliance struck James.

"Sirius! The riddle says the woman has seven children, right? But it never says anything about daughters! If all seven of her children are boys, then half of them are still boys!"

James looked at the Sphinx for some sort of hint, but her face remained impassive.

"You wanna risk it?" said Sirius sceptically.

James plunged his hand deep into his robe pockets and gripped his wand tightly. "Yeah, I'm ready for it." He turned to the Sphinx. "The answer to the riddle is that all her children are boys, so half are boys and so is the other half."

The Sphinx stared and him and blinked. James gulped, ready to whip out his wand in defence. He doubted any spell he knew would even slightly affect her vast body. After what seemed like an eternity, she smiled and nodded. James felt all the air whoosh out of his body in relief.

"Well done," she said serenely. "But the second riddle is more challenging.

"_I can sizzle like bacon,_

_  
I am made with an egg,_

_  
I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,_

_  
I peel layers like onions, but still remain whole,_

_  
I can be long, like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole,_

_  
What am I?_"

"Don't look at me," shrugged Sirius. "That completely went in through one ear and out the other. "Can you please repeat the first part?"

The Sphinx repeated the first two lines.

"What sizzles like bacon?"

"Ugh, Sirius, that's not the point," said James. "Don't you get it? These are just meant to confuse us, they're just metaphors and what-not."

"Well then you figure it out then, if you think you know how."

"Well, what's the sound of something sizzling in bacon?" asked James. "It kind of sounds like sssssssssss. Shut up Sirius, at least I'm trying."

"Okay, okay," laughed Sirius.

James paced back and forth, muttering to himself. He really wished he'd thought to crack open that Riddle book because Sirius was no help. He asked the Sphinx to repeat the riddle eight times.

"Made with an egg…" he muttered. "A chicken is made from an egg and it sizzles if you fry it… do chicken have backbones? Ah, I don't know… Peels layers like onions, but still remains whole… what kind of freakish thing is that? Lacks a good leg… maybe it doesn't have any legs, that could be it… Long like a flagpole, yet can fit in a hole – so it would have to be long and thin… and its skin – what was it? – oh, _layers_ peel off… no, that's it! Its skin comes off in layers! Ew… It sizzles. Sizzling sounds like ssssssss…"

He proceeded to mutter and pace while Sirius sat down against a large boulder and the Sphinx looked at him with her wide eyes.

Abruptly, James stopped right in front of her with his own eyes wide in excitement.

"A snake!" he exclaimed.

Once again, the Sphinx looked at him, blinking, maddening James more. She smiled.

"Well done."

James looked at Sirius with a superior grin. He knew he needn't have read that stupid book of riddles – he was too intelligent to learn from a ridiculous book.

"If you answer this riddle correctly," said the Sphinx, "I shall let you pass: What is that which has one voice yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"

James's excitement sunk to the floor. That was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard in his life. That riddle didn't even seem like proper English to him, let alone make any sense. One voice, two-footed, four-footed, what –

"Man."

In complete bewilderment, James looked at Sirius, who was tossing a rock in the air and catching it nonchalantly. He looked back at the Sphinx. She smiled.

"You may pass," she said, getting up and moving out of the way.

The two friends rushed out of there into the Egyptian sunlight. James turned to Sirius.

"How the bloody hell did you know that?"

Sirius shrugged. "I heard Andromeda say something like that once."

"But what do we do now?" asked James. "I mean my parents could be anywhere. Most likely back at the Inn. My mom will be planning my death and my dad will be planning my funeral. I don't even know where we are."

Sirius looked around at their surroundings. There was a lot of sand.

"Er – " he said, "I think we came from around over there, remember that pyramid? We just need to find the camels we came here on."

So they walked around the sand-built cave to find the entrance, and when they did, it was deserted.

"Oh man," moaned James, "they left already."

•

Lily 

"_Please_?" squealed my six-year-old cousin Allen. He wasn't really my cousin, but his mum is my mum's best friend and I call her my aunt. He was begging his mother to let him open just one present before bed. "Please mummy, it's Christmas Eve."

"Now Allen," said Aunt Ellen, "if you don't go to bed Father Christmas won't be able to come. Anne, _help me_."

"Er, Allen," said Anne, his older sister, "I think you should leave all the present opening until early tomorrow morning. Then you can see if Father Christmas finished up all the cookies you made him!"

"Yeah!" said Allen in excitement and then he ran upstairs, all cute in his bunny pyjamas.

I smiled at Anne. She always knew the right way to handle her little brother, which is great because she's three months pregnant. I've always admired her, not only because she's the closest girl I have to a cousin, but also because she's seventeen, her boyfriend left her after he found out she was pregnant and he moved to some place in Little Hangleton to live with his Grandmother and yet she's always smiling.

"Lily, Petunia, do you want to pack away the dishes before you go to bed?" asked Mum.

"Sure Mum," I said brightly.

As we cleared the dishes we worked in silence. All the earlier excitement of friends coming to visit and singing Christmas carols had begun to wear off. I tried to start a conversation.

"How's school?" I asked my sister.

I looked up and saw her nostrils flare, but she didn't look at me. "Not great, but it's better than that freak show you go to."

Okay. I'd let that one slide. I'd always known that Petunia resented the fact that I was a witch, but it still hurt me to know that she could possibly truly hate me.

Petunia continued, "You're lucky Aunt Ellen and everyone don't know about your abnormality or they might just go back to London. I know Anne dislikes freaks like you as much as I do."

Keeping my head down so that Petunia couldn't see the tears in my eyes, I cleared away the last dish and ran upstairs to my room, where Anne was already making herself comfortable on my bed (you know, because she's pregnant, I sleep on the floor).

Anne climbed into the bed and looked up at me; she noticed my face I guess, because she said, "Lily, what's wrong?"

I sighed and climbed into my sleeping bag. "Nothing… nothing." Reaching over I turned off the lamp on the bedside table, so that the room was in complete and total darkness. Lack of light seemed to make my eyes tired, as I was suddenly getting quite sleepy.

"Goodnight, Lil."

I yawned. "'Night."

_There was a loud explosion, like the hinges being knocked off a door. _But it can't be_, thought Lily rationally. How did he find them? Unless Peter betrayed them – _

"_Lily, take Harry and go!" James yelled from outside the room and Lily quickly grabbed Harry out of his crib. "Go! Run! I'll hold him off – "_

_Lily heard James stumbling across the wooden floor. She cried out, as she feared he might be dead. She desperately wished that she could Apparate, but she could never leave Harry behind and she had never side-Apparated before._

_The door to the bedroom burst off its hinges and Lily shielded Harry from the bits of wood flying at them. There was a cackle of high-pitched laughter._

_Lily looked up just in time to see Voldemort raise his wand arm. Fear shone in her green eyes._

"_Stand aside, girl," he said, his voice full of malicious laughter._

"_No!" cried Lily. "Not Harry! Please – I'll do anything – "_

"_Stand aside!"_

"_Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy…"_

_Voldemort laughed. It wasn't deep and throaty, but high and shrill and cold._

"_Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily continued to say. She could not let her child die, she could not. She would give up her own life if only the Dark Lord would spare her son. It barely dawned on her that James was dead, it was all just too much to take in at once._

"_Stand aside, you silly girl…" he said, is voice less amused, and more irritated. He was tired of the game. If she didn't step aside soon he would not only kill the boy, but he would kill her, too. "Stand aside now…"_

"_Not Harry," Lily insisted, still shielding her baby, turning her back to Voldemort and facing Harry's crib. If only her wand weren't in the kitchen! Not that it would help much… "Please no, take me, kill me instead – "_

"_As you wish," said Voldemort softly. "But you will have died in vain. Avada Kedavra!"_

_There was a green flash of light and a rushing sound in her ears as she felt her life being stripped from her body and she screamed._

"NOT HARRY!"

I bolted straight awake in a panting sweat. My heart rate was going so fast I put my hand to my chest to slow it down.

"What's wrong, why are you screaming?" came a groggy voice.

Only then did I realize where I was. I was in my bedroom next to Anne, my three-month-pregnant cousin. But the dream had seemed so real and so vivid. Suddenly, a picture flashed in my mind. It was a green skull with snakes coming out of the mouth. A cold voice echoed in my mind _The Dark Mark_. I had never seen it before. But as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. I could remember the Mark, but I couldn't remember the dream.

"Sorry, Anne," I whispered.

"Who's Harry?" she asked.

"I don't know," I lied.

I remembered who Harry was this time. He was the little boy that has been in a couple of my dreams. He was really too cute – he had black hair and bright green eyes, just like mine… He just seemed too real to be a fabrication of my own imagination. But if I've seen him before, why don't I remember who he is? And if I've never seen him before, why do I keep seeing him while I'm sleeping?

Who in the bloody hell is Harry?

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Author's note: Comments.


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